Lent 1

John 1:1-6

The following sermon is the first in a five-part congregational study of the raising of Lazarus. In addition to the Gospel of John, we will be using James Martin’s book Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle as a guide for our study.

Set aside the good and bad of what the world has to say about you and know that You are God’s beloved.

Consider for a moment what it means to be God’s beloved. Looking back on your life, what enables you to believe this?

James Martin writes that we know Lazarus’s name because the early church knew it.[ix] Before the Gospel of John was written, Lazarus was raised, and thus, Lazarus’s name was known. And here’s the thing: he did nothing to earn fame. Lazarus, “God has helped,”[x] “he whom you love,”[xi] is known and celebrated as the recipient of Jesus’s greatest miracle, and his only act was to walk when called upon. “Lazarus come out.”

The world may not know who you are. You may feel invisible throughout the day, or the world's attention is always on you. None of that matters to God when it comes to your belovedness. Your belovedness, you being one whom the Lord Jesus loves, like Lazarus, has nothing to do with your accolades and everything to do with the One calls us to “come out,” to come and see the goodness of God’s grace.

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