Alright, let's read this text. As I said, the first 15 verses,
then making reference to the others. Now, a certain man was
sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. And it was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sister sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard, he said, The
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. When he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place
where he was. Then after that, saying to his
disciples, Let us go into Judea again. His disciples said unto
him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee there. Goest thou there again? Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in a day? If a man walk in the night, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no
light in him. These things said he, and after
that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I
go that I may awake him out of sleep." Then said his disciples,
Lord, if he sleep, he do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death,
but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there, to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go unto Him." All right, there's our original text, and
we'll be looking at this whole chapter really today. We'll come
now to what I believe to be the crowning miracle of our Lord's
earthly ministry. I think this is the crowning
earthly ministry of Christ our Savior. And that would be the
raising of Lazarus again from the dead. And again, when John
the Baptist from prison sent unto Christ, saying, Are you
the one that should come, or do we look for another? We remember
again that part of our Lord's answer In Matthew 11 and verse
5, you go tell John the things that you have seen, and one of
those things was that the dead are raised up. You go and tell
John that dead people are being made alive again. They're being
raised up out of the grave. Life is being returned unto those
that were dead. So let us set the background
here that leads up to the miracle that we're interested in considering
now. It concerns three siblings who
lived in the city of Bethany. Two women, Mary and Martha. Sometimes one seems to be the
lead, sometimes the other. But Mary and Martha and their
brother, Lazarus. Now, Bethany was some only two
miles outside of the city of Jerusalem. And the Lord was neither
a stranger in that city, nor in this home that we are mentioning
this evening. In fact, in the Gospel of Luke,
you will read, chapter 10, verse 38 through verse 42, there is
a record of a time earlier when this same Lord Jesus Christ was
a guest in the home where these three lived, Martha, Mary, and
Lazarus. When Martha was occupied about
much serving, if you remember that particular occasion, she
was hustling about, she was fixing food, She was seeing that the
guests had something to eat and to drink. Mary, however, was
in the parlor where the Lord was holding forth, and she was
there, as it were, at His feet, listening to the words of the
Lord. Now, the Lord at that time commended
as the good part which shall not be taken away. Martha, Martha,
thou art troubled about many things. Mary hath chosen the
good part that shall never be taken away from her." Now, the
scene, however, is quite different in John chapter 11. In that,
not only is Jesus not there, not close by, not with them when
the brother, Lazarus, is seriously ill and they fear even unto death. To the concern of the two sisters,
Mary and Martha. And verse 2 tells us, that this
Mary was the same one who anointed the feet of our Lord and then,
with the very hair of her head, wiped off the feet of our Lord. And if I'm not mistaken, I don't
think this had happened yet at this particular time in John's
Gospel. But you'll see the record in
Matthew 26, 6-13, and that's pretty late in the ministry of
our Lord. Presumably, John makes this distinction
because there were at least four Marys in the New Testament. There are at least four women
with the name of Mary that we meet with as we go through the
New Testament. All having something to do with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Be that as it may, when Lazarus
fell sick, the first thing the sister thought about while sending
word of it unto the Lord, saying, The one you love is sick." Verse
3. Look how they couch those words
or frame those words as if to gain a favor of the Lord. The
one that you love is sick. They might easily have said Lazarus
is sick, but they said the one that you love is sick. Was it
in the hope? that the Lord therefore would
act to spare Lazarus and recover him that the sisters might not
endure the sorrow of his loss. But the response of the Lord
may amaze them and us in verse 4. Verse 4 has both a literal
as well as a mystical meaning. When our Lord said, this sickness
is not unto death. That is, it is not to death,
not to dying. But this sickness or ailment,
as you might find it in some translations of the Greek, this
ailment is for the glory of God. In other words, this ailment
will not culminate in death, but it will be an occasion for
the display of the glory of God, that the Son of God might be
glorified thereby. Now the answer that our Lord
gives could be looked at, I guess, as ambiguous. That is, it could
be understood in more than one way. Just as can the word sleep
that we have here in this chapter. Verse 11, verse 12, verse 13,
and verse 14. The word sleep is used as a euphemism
for death. Now the sisters and those that
heard it personally could take it to mean that Lazarus would
recover, that Lazarus would not die. The sickness is not unto
death. That though he were seriously
ill at that particular time, he would not die. The ailment
would not take away his life. Even in the last part of verse
4, the glory of God and His Son could also be consistent with
the recovery of Lazarus off of a sickbed rather than raising
him out of the grave. So, threatening sickness had
gripped their brother Lazarus. However, this cannot be the Lord's
meaning. It cannot be that I will save
him from dying. He shall not die. For Lazarus
indeed did die. We have the record in verse 14.
not only died, but was interred in a grave or in a cave in a
tomb, prepared for burial and buried in the grave. And that
for four days Lazarus lay in the grave. before our Lord came
on the scene." So if the Lord here meant to assure that Lazarus
would not die, he would recover, it was not so, for Lazarus did
pass away. But in verse 4, much like what
is said in the previous miracle in John 9 and verse 3, that the
man was born blind for the manifestation of the glory and the power of
God. This man is born blind in order
that out of his blindness there might be displayed the power
of God. Even so, the greater purpose
or reason for the sickness of Lazarus was not simply and only
the dying of his body. Rather, the foremost end of the
sickness of Lazarus was after it had brought him to death,
after he had been down into the grave, the Lord Jesus Christ
would raise him up again, and the sickness, whatever it was,
was a means unto that end. It was the means that took Lazarus's
life. And that allowed the display
of the glory of our Lord. Now, the Lord knew two things
as we read the text. Number one, He knew that Lazarus
would die. His illness would prove fatal
to the body. His life would come to an end. Secondly, He also knew that He
would raise Lazarus from the dead. And this is the purpose
of Lazarus being sick and dying, that the Lord might display His
power in raising him up from the dead. Now, need we ask ourselves
the question, to heal a sick man or to allow him to die and
be buried and then raised up again? Which is greater? Which
is the greatest? To heal a man yet sick on his
bed? or to let him die and raise him
up out of the grave. Which is counted greater? To
restore the sight to a man that had it and once lost it, or to
give sight unto a man that never had seen in all of his life? Even which is greater? to create
the world or to make the world by rearranging pre-existent matter
or by calling it into existence out of absolutely nothing. I think we know the answer to
all of those. But let's trace the events from
the receiving of the message and the actual raising of Lazarus
again from the dead. In verse 5, Jesus loved the three. He loved them both with an everlasting
love, and He also loved them with a human love or a human
affection. Verse 3, the one you love. It is evident that it was so.
Verse 11, He calls Lazarus our friend. Our friend Lazarus is
dead. Here are some manifestations
of the tender humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Still in verse
6, He tarries two more days where He was when He heard that Lazarus
was sick. Verse 7, He tells the disciples,
let's return to Judea again. Let's go into Bethany. In verse
8, the disciples react to this kind of an announcement. They say to him, Sir, Master,
the Jews had recently made an attempt to stone you there, and
will you go there among them again? They may still be of such
a mind and a threat unto your life. In verse 9 and verse 10,
the Lord used the same kind of metaphor as He had done in chapter
9, verse 4 through 6, that one must work while it is day, must
complete the appointed work while the time remains for the working,
and that his life and his ministry upon the earth was nearing its
little day." In other words, the ministry on earth of our
Lord was drawing to a close day by day, that His life and His
ministry on earth was nearing its close as He was with them
personally in the world. And perhaps He is saying here
unto His disciples, the Jews could not bring Him down to death
until the day had been finished and all of His works that the
Father gave Him to do should be accomplished. Having said
that, he tells them in verse 11, Our friend Lazarus sleeps. Our friend Lazarus is sleeping. Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I go that I may awake him. His disciples took it very literal
in verse 12 and verse 13, as if he were asleep in his body. And being sick, they reason,
the sleep and the rest would do him good and might aid him
in his recovery. Lord, if he sleeps, he does well. But note, often in the Scripture,
sleep is a euphemism for death. And to awake is a euphemism for
being raised up out of the grave or from the dead. And understand
that a euphemism is a way of expressing a thing in a less
harsh way. For example, many times people
don't say, so-and-so died, they say they passed away. or they
passed off, or they left. Instead of saying, so-and-so
died, they say, so-and-so passed away. But it is a thing less
harsh, a way to say it. Or, in deference to political
correctness, we are not allowed to say, so-and-so is a nut. Instead, we have to say, so-and-so
has issues. And that's the way political
correctness has put it today. But here are some examples of
the word sleep and awake as euphemism in the Scripture. First here
in our text is one, Lazarus sleeps. He means he is dead. But I go
that I may awaken, not off of a bed, but out of a grave. And these pertain to the body,
not the soul." Our friend Lazarus sleeps. His body is dead. I go that I may arise it. Daniel 12 and verse 2, here's
where both of them are used. Many of them that sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and
some to shame and everlasting contempt. Again, in Acts 13 and
verse 36, after David had served his own generation well by the
will of God, he fell on sleep, that is, he died, and was laid
unto his fathers. That means he was buried or entombed,
and he saw corruption. Now you'll see that again in
1 Kings 2 and verse 10. The same thing is true with Solomon. In 1 Kings 11 and verse 45, it
said, Solomon slept and was buried. In the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians
4 and 14, Paul speaks of them which, quote, sleep in Jesus,
unquote. Verse 15. 1 Corinthians 15 and
51, we shall not all sleep. That is, we shall not all die. Matthew 27 and 52, the bodies
of the saints which slept arose after the resurrection of Jesus.
That means they came out of their grave. And here in John 11-14,
it is clear that the Lord uses sleep in reference unto death.
Verse 11, our friend Lazarus sleeps. Verse 14, Then said Jesus plainly,
Lazarus is dead. It is one and the same thing.
A euphemism is sleep. Our friend Lazarus is dead. Now look at verse 17. When Jesus
arrives, He found that Lazarus, whom He loved, whom He called
a friend, had been not only dead, but four days in the grave. And he found the two sisters,
Mary and Martha, in deep grief indeed. And both of them say
the exact same thing upon their first meeting with the Lord Jesus
Christ. As they went out to meet Him,
Martha first and then Mary, they each said to Him, Lord, if You
had been here, Our brother had not died. Martha in verse 21. Mary in verse 22. That the Lord might have prevented
the death of Lazarus. If only he had been there. If
only he had come when they called. Let us notice something down
in verse 37. That some of the friends and
some of the mourners That is, the people in the company who
went with them out to the graveyard, maybe even some there with animosity
toward the Lord, said this, Could not this man who opened the eyes
of the blind have also caused that this man should not have
died? This man who said he can open
eyes, could not he keep this man from dying? He loved him. He wept over him. And his sisters
were very green. Perhaps we can catch a glimpse,
though, of their attitude, get a little bit inside of their
mind, if we see a contrast between those in verse 36 and those in
verse 37. Looking at verse 36, are such
as concluded from hearing And from seeing Jesus weeping, the
God-men standing there shedding tears, the Jews said, Behold
how He loved him. But look at those in verse 37.
And some, literally, but some, that is, others of the crowd
said, If He loved him so, why did He not prevent his death?
He is reputed to have opened the eyes of the blind, and done
many wonderful works. Could he not also have kept this
man alive even when he was at the door of death? Now, this
spirit was aimed at our Lord on more than one occasion. This is the same spirit vented
against the Lord upon the cross. And I shall share it with you.
Matthew 27 and verse 40. While Christ was upon the cross
in misery and agony, and was being mocked in all kinds of
ways, some of those said this, Thou that destroy the temple
and build it again in three days, save Thyself." If you could destroy
the temple and put it up again in three days, then save yourself. Mark 15 and 31 is another example
of that. The chief priests, as they mocked
our Lord, in His agony on the cross. They cried out where others
could hear, and they said, He saved others. Himself He cannot
save. Let Him come down from the cross,
and then we will believe Him. But before we consider the resurrection
of Lazarus, we ought to consider a preliminary conversation or
exchange which occurred between The Lord and Martha. Now, you'll find it in verse
21 through verse 27. It begins with Martha saying
in verse 21, If you had been here, my brother had not died. And it is a question to ponder.
What sort of feeling? What sort of emotion were behind
these words of Martha? We do not see and cannot read
inflection in the words of the Scripture. So we can wonder what
sort of emotion and feeling drove these words out of the mouth
of Martha. And the same thing again with
Mary. They must have discussed it among
themselves earlier, for both of them said the same thing,
Lord, if you had been here, our brother had not died. Now, trying
to get inside of Martha's head a little bit, do Martha's words
imply a disappointment? Lord, if you had but come, if
you had but been here. Or are the words of Martha a
not-so-subtle or veiled rebuke to the Lord? Lord, if you'd come,
my brother had not died. Are they an expression of trust? and confidence in Christ. I'm
persuaded if you'd been here, Lord, our brother had not have
died. J.C. Ryle, I think, is pretty
close to the truth. That we have here an honest impulsiveness,
and a strange mixture of emotions in this woman, Martha. We sent you word. You didn't
come in time. If you had been here, It could
have prevented the death of our beloved brother. We are your
friends. You love us. You love Lazarus. You have been entertained in
our home again and again. Ryle said, we see in her words,
both faith and unbelief. Not surprising when we look at
the feelings and the emotion of our own hearts when we are
cast into some unfavorable way of providence? When a loved one
is passed away from us, why did I lose my child? Why are my parents
gone so young in their life? Why my brother or my sister gone
and lost so early in a horrible way? Why my wrenching devastating
divorce that disrupted my life. Why am I sick? Why do I struggle
and barely get by? Why have my children gone astray
and broken my heart? And all of that when the Lord
might have prevented it had it been His blessed will, even though
we believe in the sovereignty of God in all things. To her
credit, please notice, Martha does say in verse 22, I know
that even now I believe, I am persuaded, I believe it beyond
question and beyond doubt, that whatsoever you ask of the Father,
He will give it unto you. Nothing shall be withhold which
you ask of the Father. what you ask, you receive. God so favors you, He will grant
your every petition. Is this a hint that the Lord
might act in her favor and in regard unto her brother? In verse
23, the Lord tells her, your brother will rise again. But still, this is ambiguous
as far as Martha is concerned. The question then is this, Does
this relate to Martha's confession in verse 22 or to something else? Consider the connection. Martha
says, if you had been here, Lord my brother had not have died. And in verse 23, the Lord replies
to her, your brother will rise again. He will live again. Note, if you will, to His disciples
He had said in verse 11, I go, that I may awaken him out of
his sleep. But to Martha he only says, Your
brother will live again." Verse 23, he does not tell her when,
does not tell her, I have come right now to raise your brother
from the dead. He tells her only, Your brother
will rise again. I think what the Lord is doing
He is drawing along the faith of this disciple. And she makes
a confession. I know that He will live again
in the resurrection in the last day. Verse 24, she was of that
part of Jewry that confessed a resurrection. Acts 23 and verse
8, Matthew 22 and 25, the Sadducees did not confess or believe in
either a resurrection or in a mortal spirit. And then the Lord takes
her to the pinnacle of faith. In verse 25 and 26, concerning
resurrection, the Lord tells Martha, having said, Your brother
will rise again. Yes, Lord, in the resurrection
I know. Jesus says to her, I am the resurrection
and the life. David Brown understood these
words of the Lord as saying this, quote, the whole power to impart,
maintain, restore life resides in me, unquote. In me I have
all power over life and death. He is the conqueror of death,
physical as well as spiritual, what Ryle called the root and
the fountain of all life." The Lord Jesus Christ is certainly
that. But before He goes and raises
Lazarus from the dead, He lays before Martha a double assertion. Me being the resurrection and
the life, and here the emphasis being also upon life. He that believes on Me, though
he be dead, though he die, yet shall he live." Verse 25, the
last part. Secondly, we notice, me being
the resurrection and the life, he that believes on me, the life
that he has by believing or by faith, shall never die. Compare that with John 8 and
verse 51. Then Jesus tests Martha's faith
on these things, asking her in verse 26 and the last part, Do
you believe? All that I have said. He that
believeth in Me, though he is dead, yet shall he live. He that
believeth in Me shall never die. Martha, do you believe this? In verse 27, she declares, I
do believe. And I think the tense in the
Greek is, I have believed. I have. Not just now, but I have
believed. You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God that was to come into the world. What a confession.
That of Peter and also that of the Samaritan woman. Now we see
the Lord's coming to the place where Lazarus had been laid,
or the Greeks as put, which was a cave, and there was a stone
covering the opening of Lazarus' tomb. And here we see that our
great High Priest, Jesus, the very Son of God, can be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. Hebrews 4 and 15. For he wept
and he groaned in himself." Verse 35 and 38 of John chapter 11. The shortest verse, I believe,
in the Scripture. Jesus wept in John 11 and verse
35. And in verse 39, He commands
the stone to be removed. He commands the graves closing
to be taken away, which brings a protest from Martha, the sister
of him that was dead. And her protest is this, Lord,
by this time surely corruption has set in. Surely by this time,
Lord, he smells and there is the odor of death and the stench
of putrefaction in his grave. He has been under the power of
death for four days. Jesus rebukes her and continues
the process in the raising of Lazarus. Now, this time for this
particular miracle, He hadn't done so always in the past, but
at this time, He prays to the Father. Verse 41 and verse 42. And it's not so much a prayer
of supplication or asking, it is a prayer of thanks and praise
and thanksgiving. He prays not for help, but praises
the Father for always hearing Him. And He does so not for His
sake, but for the sake of those that stood by, for those that
are there, for those that are here, that they may know that
Thou hast sent Me into the world, that I have come by God and from
God that they may know and understand that I am the one that has come
down from God. Now has come the hour to awaken
Lazarus, to stand him up again on his feet. And the question
might enter the mind, how will he do it? And is the crowd now
quiet? Do they quiet down hardly a murmur
but whisperings in Mary? And Martha, what are they thinking? That the Lord has asked the stone
to be rolled away to expose the corruption of their brother.
But the Lord stands before the tomb where Lazarus has been laying. And in a loud voice, our Lord
says, Lazarus, come forth. And in verse 44, Lazarus, which
had been dead, came out of the tomb, but still bound in the
grave cloths, and a napkin still on his face, as was the custom
of the Jews to bury. And the Lord commanded them to
be removed. Loose him, take him off, and
let him be free. This is the crowning miracle,
I believe, of the Lord. as especially concerns His ability
to raise up the dead. In raising other dead, and we
have two other people that our Lord raised from the dead during
His ministry recorded in the gospel, in raising other dead,
He did so by touching them and raising them up or speaking to
them on the same day that they died. He raised both of them
back to life the same day they died. Jerias' little 12-year-old
daughter and the only son of the widow of Nain. Jerias' daughter
lay yet upon her bed where she died. The son of Nain, the widow
of Nain, was on a bier being carried to the grave to be buried. Both of them, our Lord touched
them and raised them up again. With Lazarus, he only spoke and
raised one dead four days. Not the day he died, but four
days. And then after the set-in of corruption, the crowning miracle
of all of his works in victory over death was this one of raising
Lazarus. Now consider, to heal live bodies,
to heal living bodies, or cast out demons from a living person,
is indeed a work and a wonder. To raise the dead is the ultimate
power, as the farmer or forerunners of the ladder, in that he that
cannot conquer, he that cannot overcome and conquer death, cannot
overcome and conquer sin. He that cannot do the one cannot
do the other. Like that of the wine, the Lord
has saved the greatest work for the latter part of His ministry. The raising of Lazarus, dead
four days and corruption setting in. An undeniable miracle with
many witnesses beholding this great work of our Lord. Unable
to deny it. They knew He was dead. Some helped
bury Him. Some comforted them. Some knew
Lazarus personally. And here he is alive and out
of the tomb. I must tell you that I have neither
words nor ability to tell you this evening how again the organs
of Lazarus were so animated, how the lungs began to breathe
again, the heart began to beat and to pump and blood flowed,
and how the spirit of this man is summoned back into the earthly
temple of clay. For it was all so contrary to
nature what our Lord had done. What our Lord had done defies
anything but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. To paraphrase the
frightened sailors, what manner of man is this that even the
dead hear and obey His call and voice? The Lord called He that
was dead came off of His couch of death. He did it by the very
word of His power. He commanded, and Lazarus responded
to the call and command of our Lord. If I were asked for two
proofs of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, they would be the
following, my first two. Number one, the raising of Lazarus
from the dead after four days. Bringing him back after the onset
of corruption. Now, if you don't believe this,
what else do you not believe in the sacred Scripture? Secondly,
I would choose his very own resurrection, that of the Lord, after three
days without seeing any corruption. First, he brought Lazarus back
after four days and beginning corruption, and brought himself
out of the grave after three days and saw no corruption. And this declared or manifested
him to be indeed the Son of God." Romans 1 and verse 4. Speaking of death and the power
of death, He has raised His elect from their deadness in trespasses
and in sin. This He has done by His sovereign
power. When we had spent many years
dead in sin and under the corruption of the flesh, He spoke or willed
us into newness of life and made our filthy rags of self-righteousness
fall off and clothed us with the robe of righteousness. He
loosed us from our feathers of sin that bound us to those many
years. And this is a marvel of divine
grace. It is a marvel of grace that
one dead in sin can live again. One who is dead in trespasses
and in sin can be made to live unto God. And this is the case
even when we were dead In trespasses and in sin we were quickened
with our Lord Jesus Christ. He but speaks to the dead and
they arise, they live again. I won't turn there for the sake
of time, but in John 5 you have a declaration from our Lord that
He has authority to give life and that those who believe in
Him and die, shall they live again, that they shall come out
of their graves and so forth, that he is or has this power
from God. It is invested in him. And to
make a man live again after four days, does that not say to us
he can make one live again after any amount of time whatsoever? Time is of no consequence if
he were to raise the dead, and he could do it. And that is the
teaching of the Scripture, that in him I am the resurrection,
I am the life. When Martha spoke about a resurrection
day, he somewhat corrected her and said, I am the resurrection
and the life. And he speaks, and the dead live
again. Thank you for your attention.
Let's bow our heads together, please, for a word of closing
prayer before.