Martha had stood at her brother's bedside as he tossed and turned, became increasingly sick and weak. She had talked with the doctors, tried the remedies and prayed.

And she had thought about Jesus.

She and her sister had sent a message to Him on the other side of the Jordan, telling Him Lazarus was sick. If only He would come, Lazarus would be healed. He would enter the room, put His hands on their brother's head and the fever would be gone. Lazarus' pain and Martha's worry would be through. If only He would come.

But He didn't come.

Martha watched her brother die, knowing that help existed, but not seeing that help come when it was needed.

And now, four days after Lazarus' death, Jesus had come - too late. He asked to be taken to the tomb. Then He asked that the stone on the burial cave be removed. He stood in front of that darkened cave where a dead man had lain for four days, prayed and then shouted into that darkness, "Lazarus, come forth!"

The next words are stunning in their simplicity:

"And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go."

What power! What authority! The same voice that spoke and the worlds were framed spoke again and a dead man walked out of his tomb alive! A friend once observed that Jesus prefaced His shout with Lazarus' name because, had He simply shouted, "Come forth!", all the tombs in the planet would have opened. That day, according to John 5:28, is still in the future.

The crowd watching may have been so amazed that they missed a small aspect of this miracle that is extremely significant. With such command and authority that death itself backs away at His word, isn't it strange that the dead man should come out still wrapped in grave clothes? Surely we would expect that Jesus would bring him out of that tomb free of all entangling ties to defeated death.

And then, stranger still, He turns to those around, His disciples and possibly Mary and Martha, and tells them to pull off the grave clothing with which Lazarus was wrapped.

Why did the Lord Jesus do that? A word from Him and those clothes would have fallen to the ground. Yet He reserved that word and instead told others to do the job.

There was work for the followers of Jesus to do. He had given this man life, yet the process of untangling him from the death he had left behind was to be a work of faith charged to His disciples.

This is the Lazarus Factor. The disciples were given the job of discipleship.

Training men and women to be fruitful followers of the Lord is a basic charge for the church of Jesus Christ. Just as the victim helped by the good Samaritan was taken to an inn to be cared for as part of his rescue, so the Lord Jesus takes men and women who were dead in their sins, beaten and bruised by life, and gives them to the Body of Christ to strengthen, train and mature for service in God's Kingdom.

Jesus Christ made the training of a handful of men one of the primary accomplishments in His ministry. In the church of Jesus Christ, we need to keep clear that one of our most important tasks is training men and women.

I note three things the Bible specifically mentions about the resurrected Lazarus, and I think we can use these to see the three key areas in which we need to train men:

Lazarus' bound feet,
his bound hands
and his covered face.

The Walk, that is, the man. God is more interested in who we are than in what we are doing. Our character is our most powerful communication. We train men to trust the Lord in the challenges of daily life, to understand and leave behind wrong attitudes and understanding. Mark 3:14 tells us that Jesus 'ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach.' The priority was for the twelve to spend time with Christ and one another, seeing and learning godly character which would then impact their work and words. We are called to spend time with other believers in purposeful training that will change and mold their character. Character and attitudes not only matter. They form the basis for all that comes out of the life of the believer, determining both the quality and quantity of fruit produced in his or her own life and the lives of those around. Thus Solomon tells us "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23)

The Work, which touches the areas of mission and method. In order to be useful for the advance of the Kingdom of God both in the lives of others and in new geographic areas, we need to know what God's purpose is and we need to how God would use us to accomplish that purpose.

The mission is to glorify God by taking His message in word and action to the world around us, cooperating to see that message go throughout the whole earth. Proverbs 14:28 declares that God is glorified as more people believe Him, and it is our mission to be co laborers with God to see that happen.

Hudson Taylor spoke of doing God's work God's way. Though there is tremendous liberty and diversity in the way God leads us in accomplishing His work, there are some methods the Word of God establishes, such as the importance of the church, submission to the Word of God, the clear announcing of the Gospel, the necessity of proceeding in faith and an understanding of the leading of the Holy Spirit. In training others, we teach them both the priority and the procedure.

The Words, or, the message. As we train others, the priority area of attention is character. Secondly, we train others in purpose and procedure, so that they know the goal and how to get there. But the third area is also of vital importance: What is the message to be communicated? A man of sterling character who understood his mission and method would not be fruitful if he had the wrong message. 2 Samuel 18 tells that story:

Ahimaaz, a runner, was not chosen to take a message to King David; another had been sent. Nevertheless, Ahimaaz so insisted that he be sent also that the General acceded. He passed the other runner, arriving first to give the message to the king. He was a man who wanted to serve, an excellent character quality. He knew how and where to run, essentials of his work. Nevertheless, when he got to the king, he was set aside because he didn't have the message.

The Task Given:
The Lord Jesus Christ, who made the universe by speaking, stood at the mouth of an empty tomb and charged His followers to take on a task, the task of untangling and unemcumbering another so that in his walk, work and words Christ could use him as an effective witness for His glory. We have received the same charge: To train men and women to be fruitful disciples of Christ.

The example of Lazarus gives us this in a figure, but we need not go only to figurative examples to find this task given to us. In Matthew 28:19 and 20, we find the Lord Jesus instructing us make disciples, "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you..." It is not enough to teach others all things Christ has taught us. We must first obey, and then teach others to obey all that He commands. As the church of Jesus Christ makes disciples, we need to deal with the walk, the work and the words of those we disciple.