Easter: Ditch Those Grave Clothes

What we're gonna do for the next few minutes is talk through a very famous story that is closely connected to this holiday.

Uh it's a story about a dead man who comes back to life.

It's a resurrection story.

But before we get into that story, I have a seemingly unrelated question.

And it's gonna sound really superficial, but just stick with me and it actually connects.

How many of you, either yourself or someone in your family, you're wearing something brand new for Easter?

Like you've got some new Easter clothes.

Don't be ashamed, like people are like half raising their hands.

It's okay if you get new duds for a holiday.

Like, how many of you are wearing something new, or maybe you have a kid who's wearing something new?

Awesome.

All right.

Now, I'm not raising my hand because I'm one of you.

I I have, I'm not wearing anything brand new.

I've had everything that I'm wearing for years.

This sweatshirt, like this, I don't even know how old this sweatshirt is.

It's like an old faithful.

You know, it's like one of those pieces of clothing you have in your in your closet where you're like, when did I get that?

I feel like I've always had it, but surely not because I didn't used to be this size.

I've had this sweatshirt for years.

It's just, it's an old hat, basically.

So, well, actually, it's an old sweatshirt.

But either way, like, this is old.

My daughter, though, I've got a five-year-old daughter, three boys, one girl.

She is wearing a brand new Easter dress this morning.

She looks beautiful.

Here's the thing, though, uh, we weren't gonna buy any new clothes for Easter this year.

I don't know if any of you have families like mine, but but every holiday, my wife likes to use whatever holiday is closest as an excuse to have a family photo.

And what she means by family photo is everyone buys new clothes, everyone has to coordinate, not match, but coordinate.

You know, and you know how much kids love sitting down for posed pictures, like that's every kid's favorite thing to do for an hour on one of their days off, like one of their weekend days.

Hey, we're gonna take pictures and smile and act happy.

Even if you're not happy, shut up and act happy.

You know those pictures?

Like, that's what we do.

That's our Easter tradition.

Everyone shut up and smile.

That's Easter.

Jesus is risen, shut up and smile.

Um, you know?

But we decided this year to take a break from that.

We decided no, no forced family photo.

My oldest boy, who's nine, last year, we made him wear a bow tie and like it almost killed him.

It almost killed him, basically.

That's how he acted.

And so we said, you know what, this year, everyone wear what you want to wear.

And I was excited about that.

I was really excited about that because that means saving money.

I told Megan, if we're not gonna, if we're not gonna do a family photo, then we're not buying any new clothes.

All the kids have plenty of clothes.

I don't want us to buy any more.

Let's save some money.

And I was firm on that.

I was firm until three days ago.

We had to run some errands, and we took, we took my daughter with us, and we walk into this store, and I wasn't even thinking about this, didn't anticipate this at all.

We walk in this store, and right at the very front are just racks of Easter dresses.

And my daughter's like two feet in front of me, and she just stops in her tracks.

And I know what's going on, right?

I know what's happening.

And I'm preparing myself, like, say no to her.

Say no to her, tell her no.

She's my only girl, right?

Like any any dads have boys and girls in the room.

You know how easy it is to tell your boys no?

You're like, quit, stop it, grow up, go away.

And then your daughter comes to you, like, what can I do for you?

What do you need?

How can I make your day better?

That's basically the dynamic.

I don't know how it works.

It's like a superpower that young girls have.

So she stops in her tracks, she turns back to me, eyes wide open, like, Dad, do you see what I see?

And I look at my wife for strength, and I get none, you know, at all.

She just looks back at me like, this is this is a you thing, like, you gotta deal with this.

And I look at my daughter, and in about three seconds, I say, Why don't you pick out an Easter dress?

You know, like let's just do this.

And then she starts trying dresses on, and she's so cute, she's so adorable.

She's five years old, she's just beautiful and amazing, and and she has two dresses, she can't choose between them.

They're both so cute, and so I'm like, Oh, why don't you just get them both?

You know, get them both.

And so I'm wearing an old sweatshirt, but but my daughter is wearing some brand new Easter clothes.

That's good.

I guess you can clap for that, why not?

Clap for the fact that I have no resolve and very little money.

You may be wondering what in the world this has to do with Easter, and it actually does, because the story that we're about to jump into, this resurrection story, it ends up that what this one person is wearing is of great importance and great significance.

And so, with that said, let's just jump into the story.

It's the story of a man named Lazarus.

You thought I was gonna say Jesus, but I tricked you.

Last year, Easter was on April Fool's, and that would have been a better message for that.

But either way, we are gonna talk about the resurrection of Jesus, but that's not the only resurrection story connected with Easter.

Because shortly before Jesus was raised back to life, he actually raised a man named Lazarus to life.

And what's really interesting is that we all have a lot in common with Lazarus if we call ourselves Jesus' followers.

And so we find his story in John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

I'm gonna start in verse 17.

When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been dead in his grave for four days.

Now, for some backstory, Lazarus and Jesus are really close.

Jesus is really tight with Lazarus' whole family, his sisters Mary and Martha.

They're all really good friends.

And they sent word to Jesus days ago that Lazarus was sick.

And they're friends with Jesus.

That's that's a convenient friend to have if you're sick because Jesus healed people left and right.

And so they sent word, Jesus, Lazarus is sick.

Will you please come and heal him?

And Jesus just chilled where he was.

He didn't go.

And it wasn't until he heard that Lazarus was dead that he decided to go, and that confused Lazarus' family.

It confused Jesus' own followers.

But now that Lazarus is dead, Jesus heads to Bethany.

It says Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss.

When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him.

But Mary stayed in the house.

Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now I know that God will give whatever you ask.

And Jesus told her, Your brother will rise again.

Yes, Martha said, He will he will rise when everyone else rises at the last day.

She thinks that Jesus is being all theological, but he's actually being really literal.

And Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life.

Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying.

Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.

Do you believe this, Martha?

Yes.

Yes, Lord, I've always believed you're the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who's come into the world from God.

And then she returned to Mary.

She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, The teacher's here and wants to see you.

So Mary immediately went to him.

Jesus had stayed outside the village at the place where Martha met him.

And when the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus' grave to weep.

So they followed her there.

And when Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.

When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.

Where have you put him?

he asked them.

They told him, Lord, come and see.

And then Jesus wept.

The people who were standing nearby said, See how much he loved him?

But some said, This man healed a blind man.

Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?

Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance.

Roll the stone aside, Jesus told them.

But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, Lord, he's been dead for four days.

The smell will be terrible.

Jesus responded, Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?

So they rolled the stone aside.

And then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, thank you for hearing me.

You always hear me.

But I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.

And then Jesus shouted, Lazarus, come out.

And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth, and Jesus told them, Unwrap him and let him go.

So that's the story of a dead man coming back to life.

It's the story of Lazarus.

But what I want us to understand this morning is that if you're a Jesus follower, and I know that a lot of us in the room are still figuring that out, maybe you came with a friend this morning.

We're so glad that you're here.

We give you the space and the time to think through these things.

But but many of us would say, I follow Jesus.

I believe that Jesus is who he says he is.

I'm like Mary and Martha.

I have times where I doubt.

You can sense the doubt in their voice.

Like, Lord, why did you do this?

It didn't seem like you did what I thought you would do.

I have those moments.

But then at the same time, I catch myself and I say, No, no, I believe you are who you say you are.

If that's you, what I hope that we understand this morning is that this isn't just Lazarus's story, this is our story.

This is your story.

In fact, we sang a song just a few minutes ago that was a callback to this very story, and the words went, You called my name and I ran out of that grave.

We didn't say you called the name of Lazarus and he ran out of that grave.

We said it in the first person.

You called my name and I ran out of that grave.

If you believe in Jesus, Easter Sunday is not just a Sunday that we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, it's a day that we celebrate the resurrection of us.

This is our resurrection day.

And for some context, here's what I'm talking about.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 says, Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.

Ephesians 2:1

Some of us might be thinking, When was I dead?

I'm trying to think back to that day that I was.

Nope, nope, never been dead.

Pretty sure I would remember that.

It goes on to say in verse 4, but God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.

It is only by God's grace that you've been saved, for he raised us from the dead along with Christ.

And so the author here, a man named Paul, uses this language and he says that we used to be dead.

We were all dead.

And he's not talking about physical death, he's talking about our spirit.

And we actually understand this in our day-to-day very easily.

Like all of you probably have a phone.

And I'm sure that at some point in time, in the last few weeks, you have described your phone as being dead.

You've said, ah, my phone died.

And when that happened, you probably didn't go in the backyard and bury it, right?

What'd you do?

You plugged it in, you charged it.

When you said that your phone was dead, you didn't mean it was physically dead.

You meant it had no life in it.

You meant that it had no spirit, it had no charge, that it was not able to do what it's intended to do.

And so what you did is you plugged it into a power source that brought it to life, and now your phone is able to function the way that it was manufactured to function, the way that it was created to function.

Well, what Paul is saying here is that we're born spiritually dead.

And what we need to do is connect with Jesus.

And when we connect with Jesus, when we give our lives to Him, we have a power source that is capable of bringing our spirit to life, and we're able to live as we're meant to live, we're able to function as we were created to function, we're able to do the things God intended us to do, but only because we've been resurrected and brought to life.

So all of us have a resurrection story, every single one of us.

And that new life, by the way, that resurrection life, it's supposed to be completely different from our old life.

Completely and totally different.

It's a life that's supposed to be defined by power, that we have the power of God at our disposal.

In fact, Scripture says that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you.

The same Holy Spirit that brought Jesus back from the grave is in you.

Scripture says that because of the new life that He's given us, that we are more than conquerors, that we are not people who are victims of our circumstances, that we're not just waiting around for something to break our way, that we actually have the power and the authority through Jesus to say, you know what, life, you're gonna get in line.

You're gonna start doing the things that God wants you to do.

I'm not a victim of my circumstances.

I'm more than a conqueror in Christ because I live the resurrected life.

That's for all of us.

In fact, we're even told in Scripture that because of our resurrection life, we don't live in fear anymore.

We don't live under the oppression of anxiety anymore.

We don't even live under the fear of death that Jesus has freed us from the fear of death itself.

Ephesians chapter 3 describes this life so beautifully.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Verse 19 says, May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

If you have been resurrected, if at some point in time you have heard the call of Jesus in your heart, you you've you've had that stirring, you've recognized, okay, I believe that he's real, and I'm answering the call, and I'm giving my life to Jesus, then your life is meant to be full and complete defined by the power and the life that comes from God.

But one of the challenges that I face, I think that most of us face, as a pastor, I have so many conversations with people that are basically saying some version of the fact that their new life, their resurrected life, doesn't seem like it's filled with the fullness of God's life and power.

Sometimes their new life, their resurrected life, maybe doesn't even seem that different from their old life, that they're not experiencing that joy, they're not experiencing that power, they're not experiencing the freedom from the power of death and sin, they're not experiencing the joy and the love and all the things that God promises.

It's like they believe that, they believe that's real, that that's there, but it's almost like, well, maybe that's for someone else.

I'm just not, I'm not feeling it.

So why is that?

If this is the life that we've been resurrected into, why is it that sometimes we we struggle to experience the fullness of God's life and power?

And might I suggest that it has something to do with what we wear?

I don't mean your your actual clothing, it's a metaphor, all right?

So you're good.

You don't have to go shopping and buy new clothes today.

Go back to John chapter 11, right after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

John 11 · chapter mention

Watch what he focuses on.

And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth, and Jesus told him, Unwrap him and let him go.

First thing Jesus says is get those grave clothes off of him.

See, in that day when you would bury someone, you would wrap them in linen cloth, you would put spices in that cloth, and you literally like wrap them up like a mummy.

So when Lazarus comes out of the tomb, he's not like dancing for joy.

He's not, like he's literally stumbling out.

He can't see a thing.

He's bound up in grave clothes.

And Jesus basically says, hey guys, Lazarus is alive, so get those grave clothes off of him.

He has no business wearing those grave clothes.

There's no way for him to experience the new life that I've given him if he's wearing that.

And for the early church, for the earliest followers of Jesus, that became like the go-to metaphor for understanding this new life that we've been given.

Are we putting on our Easter clothes?

We might say.

So, for example, in Colossians chapter 3, verse 1.

Colossians 3:1

He writes, so if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it.

Pursue the things over which Christ presides.

Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you.

Look up and be alert to what's going on around Christ.

That's where the action is.

See things from his perspective.

Your old life is dead.

Your new life, which is your real life, even though invisible to spectators, is with Christ in God.

He's your life.

When Christ, your real life, remember, shows up again on this earth, you'll show up too.

The real you, the glorious you.

Meanwhile, be content with obscurity like Christ.

And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death.

Sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it.

Ooh, that one like hits me.

Doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it.

That basically describes my diet.

And grabbing whatever attracts your fancy.

This is big.

That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God.

It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger.

It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better, but you know better now.

So make sure it's all gone for good, the bad temper, the irritability, the meanness, the profanity, the dirty talk.

Don't lie to one another.

You're done with that old life.

It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes that you've stripped off and put in the fire.

He's saying all the attitudes and behaviors of that old you, it's like grave clothes.

And you don't have to wear that anymore.

You've been resurrected, you've been brought to life.

But if you keep those grave clothes on, if you keep thinking the same way and doing the same things that you used to do, you're never going to experience the joy and the power of God.

It's just not going to happen.

He goes on to say in verse 10, now you're dressed in a new wardrobe.

Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator with his label on it.

All the old fashions are now obsolete.

Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious, irreligious, insider, outsider, uncivilized, uncouth, slave, free, these mean nothing.

From now on, everyone is defined by Christ, and everyone is included in Christ.

So chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you.

Compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline, be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense.

Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you.

And regardless of what else you put on, wear love.

It's your basic, all-purpose garment.

Never be without it.

That's the Easter clothes that we're talking about.

That's the life that you're meant to live.

That's a life that's available to every single one of us.

If you're here this morning and you haven't given your life to Jesus, maybe you're searching for something.

Maybe you're saying, hey, I just need something to happen.

I need something to go my way.

I'm just waiting for my big break.

I'm waiting for something to change.

Might I suggest that you don't need something, you need someone.

You need Jesus because he is alive, he is powerful, and he can do anything.

He can do anything.

And if you commit your life to him, he takes you exactly as you are.

And he loves you exactly as you are, but he refuses to leave you there.

Because he loves you.

He loves you.

And it describes him in these verses like a tailor.

I love that.

Anyone ever had like a custom tailored suit done or something like that?

You still like you feel like a very important person when you do that.

It's really interesting.

I had to have a suit done this last week because I had to do a wedding.

It's the first suit I've bought in 13 years.

And I'm standing up there and I'm just like at K and G.

I'm just at this normal store, but they make you step up on a platform, you know, like you're so I'm taller than normal, which is great because I'm five foot nine and I love basketball, and I don't know why God made me five nine if basketball was supposed to be something he wanted me to do.

I've protested that many times.

I have friends who are six foot six.

I'm not jealous or anything like that.

Josh, you're fine.

It's great.

Um, no big deal.

It's awesome.

I'm very happy for you.

But you know, whatever.

So, number one, I feel tall, and you're sitting there, and there's this person that's like taking measurements, and and you're just like, whoo, I'm kind of like, I like this, you know.

Here, hold out my my my arm, measure my sleeve.

You know what I mean?

You just feel very important.

So it's really interesting to think about this idea of God being like a tailor, and you're standing there and he's taking your measurements, and he's custom creating a life for you, a way of thinking and a way of living that is gonna bring you so much joy.

But all you have to do is surrender and let let him tell you what to put on.

I am not a man of style.

That's probably obvious.

And so when I had this suit done this last week, I I look at at this gentleman, Tom, who is who was managing the whole thing, and he's like, Well, do you want to go pick out a tie and a and a shirt?

I was like, Why don't you do that, Tom?

You seem like you know what what you're doing.

Why you just you go pick out what you would wear.

And he did, and it's great.

Like, I was not the person to do that, and that's the thing is we we want control, we want to do things our own way, but but God's saying, Would you please let me pick out your clothes?

Would you please let me tell you how to think?

Because I know how to think.

Would you please let me tell you which feelings in your heart are appropriate, which feelings in your heart are true, and which ones are meant to lead you astray.

Which feelings that if you follow will be a huge distraction for your life that could ruin everything.

Would you please surrender everything to me and just let me let me tell you what to put on?

Because I have a life for you and it's good.

My question this morning is if if you've been resurrected, are you wearing your Easter clothes?

And practically what that looks like is just day by day praying and surrendering and saying, God, clothe me in humility.

God, clothe me with love.

Clothe me with compassion so I can care about the people in my life and understand where they're coming from.

God, clothe me with patience, clothe me with wisdom and understanding and passion for life.

God, tell me how to think, tell me what to do.

And if you live like that, if you live like that, instead of instead of wearing grave clothes, you're gonna see a whole new you and a whole new life that you maybe never dreamed possible.

But it can only happen by surrendering to Jesus every single day.

We're gonna wrap up.

We've got two people that are about to get baptized, which is super awesome.

It's the best.

This is very exciting for us that we've had over 60 people baptized so far this year.

We've got two people, and then we're gonna finish with a song.

We've got one more song, we're gonna celebrate.

But one thing I just wanna say really quickly is everything we're talking about this morning, you can't do this on your own.

You can't live this way on your own strength, your own power.

It doesn't work.

You can try, you'll fail.

I have tried, I fail over and over again.

But if you surrender and you just let Jesus have his way and you say every day, God, I'm yours.

What do you want me to do?

How do you want me to do it?

It's like saying, Lord, dress me the way you want to dress me.

That's what works.

Something that's really interesting is that when Jesus was resurrected, he didn't need any help taking off his graveclothes.

When the disciples showed up to the empty tomb, the graveclothes were lying there.

In fact, in in John it says that they were folded.

So how nice of Jesus, how polite of him to fold him.

Like I can't teach my kids to do that at all.

I don't know, that's awesome.

Jesus did that himself, but but Lazarus, he needed help.

Jesus said to people, hey, go help him take those grave clothes off.

He couldn't do it.

I just picture Lazarus like trying to find the seams and he needed help.

It's one of the beautiful things about having a church.

You know, I'm here every Sunday, partly because I have to be.

Um, but mainly because this is my family.

And one of the things that this group of people does in my life is help me identify the grave clothes that I'm still wearing.

Because those things are sneaky.

You know, some sometimes grave clothes are obvious.

Some of the stuff that it listed, it's obvious.

Sometimes it's not so obvious.

Sometimes it's like an old sweatshirt that you love, you're just used to it.

Sometimes grave clothes look really nice.

Some people get buried in really nice clothes, but it's still grave clothes.

And I need I need the help of people to identify, not to judge, but to identify and encourage me and spur me on and say, Justin, think this way.

Justin, remember what Jesus has done for you.

Justin, I'm praying for you.

You don't you don't have to be worried about this.

God's got this.

I need help every single day, and I need help from people.

And I just want you to know this church, it's a special place.

It's a special place mainly because of its authenticity.

I've never been a part of a group of people who are so incredibly genuine and authentic.

This is not a place where you have to dress up in a fake way.

You know what I mean?

You can be who you are and trust that God's gonna work on you however he wants to, but I'm just saying I couldn't take my grave clothes off alone.

And so I encourage you to come back and be part of what God's doing here.

If you don't have a church, if you have one, go there.

But if you don't, we love you.

I know that's very forward and maybe awkward, but we do.

We love you.

Because Jesus loves you, and we are here and we are ready to help you grow and become the person that God created you to be.

So, with that said, let's pray together.

Father God, thank you so much for this incredible group of people.

Thank you, Lord, for all the kids who are here in the building as well, God, having a good time.

We love them, and we want to ask that you would speak to them.

We believe that God they can know you just as holy as we can know you.

And Father, I pray right now that with these people that are going all in with you, getting baptized, and surrendering their whole lives to you, that you would you would make this moment the incredible blessing that it's meant to be, that we would support them as their church, as their family.

And we worship you, Jesus.

We love you.

You're amazing.

Thank you for rising from the dead and and resurrecting us with you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.