Raising Lazarus
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 13 June 2021
We have looked at profound truth that is disclosed through John’s history of our Lord Jesus Christ, but as we come to John 11, we come to a narrative. It is really an account of a miracle, and it takes up the whole chapter. I can’t tell the whole story in one sermon. I need to break it up in parts. We need to take this slowly so that we can absorb all of its incredible truth.
It is the account of the miracle of our Lord raising Lazarus from the dead. And while the story is very familiar to us, in its detail it is much richer. So we want to make sure that we cover the details. This is the climactic, culminating sign to end John’s list of signs in this gospel that point to the deity of Christ. John has an apologetic purpose that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Nowhere in other accounts of His miracles do we see more magnificently the coming together of His humanity and His deity. We see His humanity and His sympathy and His relationships to an earthly family. We see His sovereignty in His power and His display of glory in overwhelming death. This miracle was the culminating miracle in His public ministry and this miracle occurs only in John.
But John writes that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with very careful detail. First of all, to declare one more incomparable, undeniable proof of the claims of Jesus, affirmed by many eye witnesses that He is God. This is the resurrection of a man who had been dead for four days. Decay would have set in because Jews do not embalm. When someone died, they were buried as fast as possible.
The purpose of this miracle is to display the power and sovereign, divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, but not just that. It’s also for the sake of increasing the faith of those who were eager to believe. In verse 15 Jesus says about not being there when he died, “I’m glad for your sakes, I was not there so that you may believe.” This miracle was to produce greater faith in the disciples.
But there’s also a third purpose of this miracle and that is to hasten the issue of Jesus’s murder because God’s timing is near. This happens just before His final Passover. He is to die by God’s plan on the Passover as the true Passover Lamb. And while the Jews had tried on a number of occasions to kill Him, they were never able to succeed at that because it was not yet His hour.
But now with this undeniable miracle, witnessed by many eye witnesses in the thousands who knew of this miracle, the rigid, permanent, irreconcilable unbelief of the Jews reaches a hostile level that leads to His execution. And that is precisely God’s plan. So this great miracle precipitates His death and provides proof for His deity. It is a monumental thing that happened.
We live in a culture that is relentless barraged with entertainment that is elevated and saturated with fantasy and unreal things. Movies and television are just jam packed with the unreal offered as if it’s reality, the fantasy world. And it’s hard for people to see the resurrection of a man 4 days dead who walks out of his grave in a small village in Judea 2,000 years ago as something that really matters.
How do you compare that with Harry Potter, flying witches, angels, vampires, aliens who constantly defy natural law? So what’s the big deal about a resurrection in a village in Israel 2,000 years ago? This is Satan’s successful effort at confusing people about the miraculous and confusing them about reality. Jesus made up stories, and they’re called parables. But not one parable Jesus ever created is a fantasy.
All His stories are in the real world, real people, real issues and real relationships. He never used fantasy to articulate a spiritual truth. Jesus never moved into the world of fantasy, but the closest He came as His depiction of the real world when He talked about the rich man in torment and Lazarus in the presence of God. But Jesus didn’t use fantasy. He used reality to communicate reality.
Still, this miracle does expose skepticism. Remember in the Luke 16, the story of the rich man who went to hell and Lazarus who was in Abraham’s bosom? And the rich man said to Abraham, “Send Lazarus back from the dead to warn my brothers,” and Jesus said in the story, “If they don’t believe Moses and the prophets, they won’t believe though one rose from the dead.”
The purpose of this miracle is to put His glory on display so that people believe, and those who already believed had their faith strengthened. This is the seventh miracle in John’s gospel. The other six: turning water to wine, healing the nobleman’s son, restoring the lame man, multiplying loaves and fish, walking on water and giving sight to the blind man, and now number seven is giving life to a dead man.
Has Jesus raised others from the dead? Yes, He has. We have two others that are indicated in the New Testament gospels. In Mark, Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter, who when He started to talk with Jairus was only sick, but she did die, and He raised her immediately. And then in Luke is the funeral procession of the son of the widow of Nain. Jesus stops the procession and raises that dead son.
But in both cases, they are recent deaths. There had been very little time for decay, but in the case of Lazarus, by the time Jesus comes to the grave to find Lazarus there, verse 17 says he has already been dead for four days. This sets the miracle of of Lazarus apart from all the other resurrections. And the Jews believed that the spirit of a person hovered over the body for a first couple of days, and then leaves.
So even in their tradition, there would have been the sense that this is a real death, and that whatever spirit may have hovered was long gone. Now, let us read John 11:1-16, “A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha. 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 very sick.”
“3 So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” 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.” 5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the next two days.”
“7 Finally, he said to His disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” 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?” 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. 10 But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.”
“11 Then He said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” 12 The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” 13 They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. 14 So He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.”
“16 Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.” Now, as you look at this initial section, we’re just looking at the characters of Lazarus, the sisters and the disciples. Verse 1, “A certain man.” We know he was a believer in Jesus Christ because his sisters confirmed that in verse 27. “Lord,” says Martha, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
Here comes a messenger to Jesus with word about this man, Lazarus. It also tells us that Bethany was the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary is a common name because it was a variation on the name Miriam, the sister of Moses. Miriam was the one who saved the life of Israel’s greatest hero, Moses. So many parents chose to name their daughters Mary.
Verse 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.” But that story doesn’t come until John 12. But that’s okay because that story had already been told in detail in Matthew and Mark and it had been circulating for a very long time by the year 90 in the first century when John writes this gospel.
All we know about Lazarus is that he was sick. Verse 3, “So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling Him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” We don’t know what he was sick with, but we know why he was sick. Verse 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.”
“Who sinned? This man or his parents?” Jesus said, “Nobody sinned, but this is for the glory of God.” I’m going to put my divine glory on display. It just comes because we live in a fallen world. There is sickness that is a discipline from God on His own people. “Some of you,” Paul says, “are weak and sick, and some of you sleep because of tampering with the sanctity of the Lord’s Table.”
So there is sickness that is a divine judgment. And there is sickness that is for the glory of God. The sisters don’t give Jesus any instructions. They talk only of Jesus’s love for Lazarus. Jesus had personal affection for him. It’s obvious that as God, He loves the world, that as God He loves His own who are in the world, and He loves them to perfection. But that’s not the thought here.
This is an insight into the full humanity of Jesus. He is a man and like every person. A perfect man with all the needs of a man. This is part of what makes Him such a merciful, faithful High Priest able to be touched with all the feelings of our infirmities. Because some of our infirmities have nothing to do with physical well-being. They have to do with intimate relationships.
So the sisters send that message, and they know that’s all that has to be said. The messenger arrives after a day’s journey. And Jesus says in verse 4, “This sickness will not end in death.” But there already is death because by the time the messenger gets there, Lazarus is dead. They realized the critical condition of Lazarus and dispatched the messenger, and he died right after that.
But that’s not the end of the story. “No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” Verse 5-6, “So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the next two days.” Lazarus has been dead for a day while the messenger has gotten there. He waits two more days, and then after two days, verse 7, “Finally, He said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
So for two days they keep preaching and ministering, and people are believing and they’re having a great time. But now their worst fears are realized. Verse 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?” The sisters on the other hand really wanted Jesus to come sooner.
Jesus answers with an interesting proverb. Verses 9 -10, “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. 10 But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.” What is the meaning of this? We are now moving from the critical man and the concerned sisters to the disciples.
His answer is a simple proverb. Nothing any friend can do can lengthen the daylight. Nothing any enemy can do can shorten the daylight. It is all fixed by God, and so is my life. And in that light of life which God has ordained for me, I will not stumble. That is to say, nothing will happen to me that is outside the plan. I’m going in the light of God’s divine day. A day can’t finish before its ordained end.
The time allotted to me to accomplish my earthly ministry is fixed by God. It can’t be lengthened by any precautionary measures. You don’t have to run from your enemies, and you can be bold and you can step right into the face of your enemies because they can’t shorten it. My day is what God has ordained it will be, and in that I go forward with confidence and boldness.
Verse 11, “Then He said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” Verse 12-14, “The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” 13 They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. 14 So He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” They need to understand that what He means is I’m going to raise him from the dead.
So in verse 15 He says, “And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.” Yes, they believed in Him. Yes, they had affirmed that He was the Christ, the Son of God, but they needed faith to be strengthened. It wasn’t just that they would believe, but that Mary and Martha would have their faith strengthened as well. This is a glory display that will produce faith.
Verse 16, “Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.” He gets a lot of negativity for that, but just think about this. This is a courageous pessimist. He said, “Let’s go and die with Him.” This man knows what Luke 9:23 means, “If you want to come after Me, deny yourself and take up your cross.” And that means that it might cost us our lives. Let us pray.