Joh 11:1 A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha.
Joh 11:2 This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick.
Joh 11:3 So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”
Joh 11:4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”
Joh 11:5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,
Joh 11:6 he stayed where he was for the next two days.
Joh 11:7 Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” —NLT
- Our timeline is not His timeline.
- When we reach out to Jesus for help, he waits to respond because He loves us.
- Any time we move to a new level of faith, we will find ourselves in a next-level kind of situation.
Joh 11:8 But his disciples objected. “Rabbi,” they said, “only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?”
Joh 11:9 Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world.
Joh 11:10 But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.”
Joh 11:11 Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.”
Joh 11:12 The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!”
Joh 11:13 They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died.
Joh 11:14 So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
Joh 11:15 And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.”
Joh 11:16 Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.” —NLT
- Jesus speaks life.
- The disciples complained, gossiped, feared, and looked for consolation among themselves.
Gossip is a foul misuse of our ability to bring life. Many people talk to be heard. Another way to put it is they talk to vent instead of to redeem. The bible says to speak the truth in love; it doesn’t say to speak your opinion in love. —Bill Johnson
Resurrection is a
Joh 11:17 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days.
Joh 11:18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem,
Joh 11:19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss.
Joh 11:20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.
Joh 11:21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Joh 11:22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”
Joh 11:23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Resurrection is a
Joh 11:24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”
Joh 11:25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.
Joh 11:26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
Joh 11:27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” —NLT
Resurrection is a
Martha knew Jesus could do anything, “But even Now.”
Resurection is more than what I do, it’s who I am. —Jesus
Joh 11:32 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.”
Joh 11:33 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.
Joh 11:34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.”
Joh 11:35 Then Jesus wept.
Joh 11:36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!”
Joh 11:37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”
Joh 11:38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. —NLT
Resurrection involves
and emotion
When did you stop contending?
- Passion and determination are essential.
- Jesus was so done with the spirit of death he came on the scene like a horse with fire in His eyes.
JESUS WEPT
- Reveals that Jesus was fully man
- Reveals that sadness and tears are not sin.
- Reveals that He was not ashamed of His humanity.
- Reveals that the Creator of the universe FEELS, and is compassionate and has high levels of empathy.
- That he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, as prophecied in Isa 53:3.
- The greeks had a belief that God was APATHEIA; Passionless, unable to feel emotion, isolated, and compassionless)
- NOT JESUS || HE WEPT
Joh 11:39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”
Joh 11:40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”
Joh 11:41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.
Joh 11:42 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.”
Joh 11:43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”
Joh 11:44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” —NLT
Resurrection is a
We want it all our way. The miracle and the method. The gift and the package. We need to say, “do it however you want to do it.”
- We want resurrection without exposing the stinky reality of what has died.
- Sometimes resurrection can’t come until we are stinking dead! Like beyond resuscitation
- We believe Jesus can raise the dead, but we often question His process.
Jesus told Lazarus to come forth and He told the people watching to unwrap him and let him go.
We go to God for forgiveness, and we go to God’s people for healing.
Real life change happens in the context of relationships.“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” – James 5:16 —Chris Hodges
Joh 11:45 Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.
Joh 11:46 But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
Joh 11:47 Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. “What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “This man certainly performs many miraculous signs.
Joh 11:48 If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.”
Joh 11:49 Caiaphas, who was high priest at that time, said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about!
Joh 11:50 ** You don’t realize that it’s better for you that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.”**
Joh 11:51 He did not say this on his own; as high priest at that time he was led to prophesy that Jesus would die for the entire nation.
Joh 11:52 And not only for that nation, but to bring together and unite all the children of God scattered around the world.
Joh 11:53 So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus’ death.
—NLTJoh 11:54 As a result, Jesus stopped his public ministry among the people and left Jerusalem. He went to a place near the wilderness, to the village of Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples.
Joh 11:55 It was now almost time for the Jewish Passover celebration, and many people from all over the country arrived in Jerusalem several days early so they could go through the purification ceremony before Passover began.
Joh 11:56 They kept looking for Jesus, but as they stood around in the Temple, they said to each other, “What do you think? He won’t come for Passover, will he?”
Joh 11:57 Meanwhile, the leading priests and Pharisees had publicly ordered that anyone seeing Jesus must report it immediately so they could arrest him.
Joh 12:1 Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead.
Joh 12:2 A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him.
Joh 12:3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.
Joh 12:4 But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said,
Joh 12:5 “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.”
Joh 12:6 Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.
Joh 12:7 Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial.
Joh 12:8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” —NLTJoh 12:9 When all the people heard of Jesus’ arrival, they flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead.
Joh 12:10 Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too,
Joh 12:11 for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus. —NLTJoh 12:12 The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors
Joh 12:13 took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted, “Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD! Hail to the King of Israel!”
Joh 12:14 Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said:
Joh 12:15 “Don’t be afraid, people of Jerusalem. Look, your King is coming, riding on a donkey’s colt.”
Joh 12:16 ** His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy**. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.
Joh 12:17 Many in the crowd had seen Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, and they were telling others about it.
Joh 12:18 That was the reason so many went out to meet him—because they had heard about this miraculous sign.
Joh 12:19 Then the Pharisees said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after him!” —NLTJoh 12:23 Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory.
Joh 12:24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.
Joh 12:25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.
Joh 12:26 Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
Joh 12:27 “Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came!
Joh 12:28 Father, bring glory to your name.” Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.”
Joh 12:29 When the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.
Joh 12:30 Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine.
Joh 12:31 The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out.
Joh 12:32 ** And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
Joh 12:33 **He said this to indicate how he was going to die. —NLT