Scripture Reading: John 11:17-27
Intro
John 11 has one major curious feature -- a two-word verse. It's very short -- John 11:35 - "Jesus wept." Yet in this short verse, we see such compassion from the Creator and King of all. All things are subject to Him, and yet He still shows concern for each individual. He cares for His creation!
There are many short verses in the Bible.
Paul advises us (by implication) very directly as part of good Christian character:
(a) 1 Thessalonians 5:16 - Rejoice always.
This verse is actually the shortest verse in the Bible if you go by number of letters in its original language. We are always to rejoice, whether we are going through prosperous times or whether God is putting us through trials.
(b) 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray without ceasing.
This verse doesn't mean that we are to shut ourselves in a closet for our entire lives, but rather that in all things, we need to be in a state of prayer -- accountable to God, ever-listening for His direction, and always acknowledging the power and gift of Prayer for our lives.
From an inventory list in Numbers:
(c) Numbers 31:44 - Thirty-six thousand cattle,
This verse has little theological significance in the scope of redemptive history, but it is yet another genre that is covered by the whole of the Books of the Bible.
And so we have here in John 11:35, "Jesus wept."
Jesus could have been a Savior who came to earth, lived a sinless life, and completely shut us out because He did it and we can't. We are incapable of sinlessness, and even from birth, we are stained by the spread of sin's curse. But praise be to God, we have a compassionate Savior who understands our weakness and cares for us so much that He gave His life to restore us to the Father.
Today's text is John 11:38-44, focusing on the preparation, prayer, and power shown in Jesus' miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, even after he spent four days in the grave. We see Jesus as the Compassionate Life-Restorer, as well as the Healer and the friend of those who trust in Him. Before we examine the text, let's open in a word of prayer.
Opening Prayer
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Basic Outline
Introduction
I. Preparation (38-41)
II. Prayer (41-42)
III. Power (43-44)
Summary: Perception (45-46)
Application
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Text:
John 11:38-44 (NKJV)
38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."
40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42 "And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"
44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."
Walkthrough
I. Preparation
First in this text, we see everything leading up to Jesus' miracle. He first commands the people what to do and reassures Martha of what will happen. Let's read verses 38-40, about the Preparation leading to Jesus' miracle:
John 11:38-40
38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."
40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"
(38) Remember from a few verses back, Jesus saw the pain of those He loved, and He had compassion on them. We see in verse 38, Jesus was groaning. This wasn't a groan of frustration or impatience. This was His deep compassion for the people He loved who were mourning the loss of their dear friend.
Remember in John 1, where it mentions that Jesus came to His own, yet His own did not receive Him? Jesus is compassionate, yet not all recognize that.
Remember in John 3, where it mentions that Jesus came to save the world, and yet there stands many who reject His gift? Jesus is sacrificial, yet not all recognize that.
This is the beauty of the Good News (Gospel) -- God reached down to us, providing His Son Jesus as a worthy sacrifice in our place. Pray that others may come to recognize that!
God expresses this compassionate love for us, seeing that His people can't earn their way to purity and salvation from the wrath they deserve. Society says that we can be morally good, but in God's sight, is this righteousness?
- Romans 3 echoes Psalms 14 and 53, stating that there is no one who is good and righteous before God. Romans 3 states that because of the Law, we can understand sin and see that nobody is good. Regardless of how many good deeds we do at charities, how many people we help, or how nice we are to others, if we do not have Jesus in our lives, Romans 8 makes clear that we can't even please God through our works.
God's love is complete. How has He shown His blessings to us? Romans 5:6-11 states:
Romans 5:6-11
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Jesus came to the tomb, and there was the normal sight for someone who was dead -- a cave with a stone rolled in front of its entrance. Lazarus was separated from the people he loved, as was symbolized by the closed tomb. Martha even reminded Jesus -- there will be a really bad stench because he's been dead for four days! Yet here, we have the Life Restorer coming to show His power that others might partake in knowing Him as Savior, regardless of what the situation looked like in the natural realm.
Jesus also was a 'Myth Buster' in this situation. First, Lazarus would have been in really bad condition if he were left in a tomb with no provision of food and water. He likely would have been dead from that alone. Second, Jesus' work goes very much against the rabbinic tradition that developed about resurrection.
Midrash - "Interpretation" of Scripture by Rabbinic sources. Some of this interpretation ended up with off-the-wall conclusions.
Four Days...
John points this out twice. Jesus raised Lazarus after four days.
Rabbinic Tradition
There is a tradition still recorded in the commentary on Leviticus (Vayikra Rabbah) which states that a person's soul is unrestorable after three days. There would be no possible way of coming back after that point.
Jesus waited until Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days, and then he did what tradition said was impossible.
He truly was the Resurrection and the Life. Remember what we read in the Scripture reading? Jesus showed Martha that He was the Resurrection and the Life. He had already promised to raise Lazarus, yet He wasn't just talking about what would happen at His Second Coming.
II. Prayer (41-42)
John 11:41-42 (NKJV)
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42 "And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."
Taking away the stone -- the obedience of the people led to the miraculous work of Jesus. Jesus could have made the stone roll away, but He chose to let the people participate in what He did. Sometimes we are called to do something that will lead to God doing the unlikely. What do we do, faithfully follow, or write God off as incapable?
We see from the prayer that Jesus had favor with the Father. Jesus mentioned in John 10 that He was one with the Father. He was not only one in nature, but also in purpose. His food -- His very livelihood -- was to do the will of the Father.
What was the purpose of the prayer? A means to show the Father's approval of Jesus Himself. Essentially, this was done so that those who had open hearts to Him would believe in Him.
Remember John's purpose for writing his letters -- perhaps in summary of various statements in John's writings, to make our joy complete by testifying to who Jesus was, so that we might believe and find eternal life in His Name.
Examples:
John 20:31 - "but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name."
1 John 1:4 - "And these things we write to you that your joy may be full."
1 John 5:13 - "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."
So Jesus did the same -- He prayed here, not to fuel His own pride or self-esteem, but rather to allow these people to come to know Him and partake in the Resurrection to come. Here, we have the Power of Jesus shown through the Resurrection of Lazarus:
III. Power (43-44)
Let's read verses 43-44:
John 11:43-44 (NKJV)
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"
44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."
Lazarus, come forth!
Challenge: Are you a Lazarus spiritually? Have you drifted away, as Hebrews warns about? Hebrews warns consistently about drifting away from God as well as hardening your heart against Him. Remember that Jesus is the source of Living Water. He is our source of constant refreshing and renewal, and we need to consistently come back to Him for Spiritual Life. Is Jesus calling to you saying, 'Come Forth!'?
Are you praying? Are you reading Scripture? Those are great. But if you are not being transformed by those prayers and those times in the Word, then you're missing it. We can check these things off our list, or we can reflect on the wonderful God of the universe and listen for Him to speak into our lives. We need to have these times of realization of how amazing God is.
Through this miracle, Jesus reveals Himself as:
- A compassionate friend to His people
- Sent from the Father
- The Amazing Healer
- The Life-Giver
- The Life Restorer
Summary: Perception (45-46)
How did the hearers react?
Verse 45: Many believed
Verse 46: Some 'tattle-taled' to the Pharisees
Remember from John 7 the mixed opinions that the people had? Some thought that He was just a prophet. Some thought He was the Messiah. Others thought He was just a man from Galilee. Even with a miraculous sign of raising a man from the dead, some still thought that Jesus wasn't from God.
There was another Lazarus in Scripture. This one was a beggar. He begged at a rich man's door regularly, and the rich man had a hardened heart to helping him. Jesus gives a very vivid description -- the rich man ended up in a place of torment. The rich man begged for Abraham to send someone to warn his family --
Luke 16:27-31
27 "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house,
28 'for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'
29 "Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'
30 "And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'
31 "But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' "
Many people are so hardened to believe against God that they would refuse Him even if they saw Him do something amazing. This was true with many who viewed the miracles of Jesus. Have you hardened your heart against His power? He can do wonders! Let's not ignore that, and let's be sure that our hearts are open to His work in and through us!
Reflection: Promise
Remember what Martha said earlier?
She recognized that Jesus would raise Lazarus at the end of things. We have that promise from Scripture, as well.
John 6:40 - "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
Romans 8:11 - But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
1 Corinthians 15:22-23
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.
If we have trusted in Jesus for eternal life, we have the promise of Heaven. Jesus mentions this in John 14, which we will discuss more next week, but we have this promise mentioned in Revelation 21, as well --
Revelation 21:4 - "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Only God can make us alive spiritually. He says to each one of us, 'COME FORTH!'
We have the promise of a Resurrection at Jesus' Return. When He calls you to come forth, will you be found to have chosen Jesus and lived a faithful life? This can include good works, but again, good works never save us. Only faith in Jesus and acceptance of His sacrifice can lead us to the living hope of joining Jesus in the coming age.
Application:
(1) Come forth from any spiritual death or laziness. Do whatever it takes to hate sin and love Jesus. Have real transforming experiences with Him. Don't just settle for bland ritual!
(2) Follow Jesus so that when He returns, we may come forth to Him and receive the promised inheritance of Salvation to those who trust in Him for forgiveness and life.
So as we close in prayer, commit all things to Jesus. Repent of your sin -- confess and turn away from it, and enjoy the forgiveness and peace which Jesus brings. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. He has already done everything necessary to make us free. Let's follow Him, abandoning everything else distracting and coming forth in order to follow Him. Let's pray.
Closing Prayer
Bibliography
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
