We are all familiar with the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead after he had been deceased for 4 days. There are many valuable lessons to be gleaned from this miraculous event.
Who is this Lazarus ?
John 11:1-2 'Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) ‘
He was the brother of Martha / Mary (John 11:1)
He was from Bethany in a village
Possible he was a Jew (No account that he was a Jew), We hear that lot of Jews came to see his death which surrounded the area.
How was his relationship with Jesus ?
Relationship of Martha / Mary / Lazarus with Jesus
John 11:5 'Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. '
Jesus Loves every one, when the word says “Jesus loved” (Verse 5) it means Jesus loved them specially. The order of love Jesus did is also described. Lazarus was the last in the three.
Out of his love, the news of his sickness was sent to Jesus by his sisters John 11:3 “'So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
Love of Jesus - Out of Love they (the sisters) say Lord, we need to learn from them. very often people called Jesus as ~ Teacher / Rabbi, but here they call him Lord.
What does Lord mean ? Lord means he is God.
They say Lord - Multiple times,. “Lord if you been there“ by Martha in John 11:21 / Mary Said “Lord if you been there” John 11:32
When they talk to each other they address Jesus as “Teacher”, When they address Jesus they say “Lord”. That signifies that he was God and all in all for them.
Martha & Mary were prophetic
Martha talks about resurrection of Jesus - John 11:24 'Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” '
Mary did pour a expensive perfume on Jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair - this is to honour the body of Jesus before his death - John 12:3 'Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. '
Jesus special love was because of the fellowship they had with Jesus and the Fellowship they had developed to call him Lord and he calling them his friend.
Jesus Relationship with Martha / Mary
Jesus considered them Friend - Jesus calls them Friend John 11:11 'After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” '
Glory to God father - 1st words of Jesus after hearing the sickness - John 11:4 'When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” '
Our way of reacting when a sickness comes is to get cure or miracle tp happen. however Jesus gave glory to God for the sickness
Jesus was giving Glory to God, so that the Son may be glorified. ~ He knew that raising of dead will bring scores of Jews to follow Jesus and engrain the faith in them.
He went 2 Days later - When he head of this sickness he did not go back immediately, we read he stayed in the place for 2 more days. John 11:6-7 'So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” . Common human wisdom will say to rush immediately, but Jesus stayed for 2 days. Jesus has a right time for every thing. Our time and his time are not always the same.
Asleep vs dead Jesus teaches his disciples what is asleep - He talks to them John 11:11 'After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” '
Jesus says he is asleep ~ he is only going to wake up him up. The disciples were not getting what he said, they gave a dumb response. See the response from them John 11:12 'His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” '
Paraphrase Jesus response, Jesus responded to them in an angered manner to say “For your sake” ~ this indicates, what have you learnt living with me. Don’t you understand what I speak ? John 11:14 'So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
Lessons for us
If we have to have a special love from Jesus to us, we need to fellowship like how Martha & Mary had, call him Appa / Father in our private prayers and our heart to reverent fear of him as Lord saviour for what our needs are. We will also be called a friend by Jesus, when we call him
Many times we are like the disciples we walk and do things - We don’t understand Jesus, our ability to learn comes only if we are attentive to his teaching.
Lets have faith in Jesus even to the point that death has no hold to Jesus, he can revive even a dead person. Same may be the case in each of our life. a closed door, a sickness that cannot be cured Doctor, a lost case or what ever the situation , Jesus can revive.. lets keep our faith in the resurrector.
Miracle of Raising of Dead
It’s been four days Lazarus has been in tomb. We saw the sisters sent a word to Jesus to come heal their brother.
How Martha reacted to Jesus
Hearing Jesus coming - Martha ran to see Jesus, she did not stay at house for the saviour to come see.
She expressed the faith in Jesus first, calling him Lord, second if you had been here.. - John 11:21-22 '“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” '
Faith talk leads to Resurrection talk - John 11:24-26 'Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”'
Resurrection talk leads to Glorifying God - John 11:27 '“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” '
How Mary reacted to Jesus
Mary was in the house when Jesus came, she was being comforted by other jews who had come to visit their house..
She fell at Jesus feet - John 11:29,32 'When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” '
She professed the faith with calling him Lord, if you had been here.. Same words as Martha..
Martha runs towards Jesus and Mary falls to his feet. ~ shows the dependence and love they had in Jesus .
Jesus compassion after seeing Martha / Mary & Jews response.
John 11:33-34 'When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. '
When these ladies started weeping and Jews who wept, Jesus was “deeply moved in spirit” of compassion to weep along with them.
He knew he will raise him. But he did not stay way from weeping. He is a God of comforter.
He lived by every word that was preached by him, he preached the mourning / comfort in sermon on cross, here we see how he lived according to that.. Matthew 5:4 ' Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.'
When he came to the tomb he was deeply moved - John 11:38 'Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. '
Things that made Jesus deeply moved was based on the actions in situation
They fall to his feet
They came running to him
The cry of people and having hope in him even after he was dead.
Jesus always did miracle out of his deep movement, which says he is convinced that they need a miracle, we don’t get miracles as we don’t make him move deeply.. We cry out and stop we don’t do enough action that moves him deeply to touch us..
Jesus performs the Miracle
John 11:39 '“Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” '
Seeing the tomb he asks to remove the stone from tomb, Martha’s response is “there is a bad odour”. Jesus waited for 2 days to have this situation happen. He did not raise any one who was dead , he was dead and decomposed.
Jesus reassured Martha on the faith, when the situation may be impossible ~ John 11:40 'Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” , We always have this unfaithful moments, it’s quite common, but Jesus does not rebuke he reassured Martha.
Jesus prayed to father to do the miracle ~ its aligned to what he spoke 4 days back in Verse 4
When Jesus heard this he said this — John 11:4 'When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” '
What Jesus did after he prayed — John 11:41-43 'So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”'
Jesus words were always short “Come out”, when he drove demons ,he said “go away” ~ reflects the power and authority of our saviour.
Jesus looked to the Father above and reaffirmed to him by talking to the spirit - John 11:41 ..I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me,”
Jesus coming here after 2 days is based on the work of father, his delay was not his he came based on what the Father’s will was.. John 11:42 ..but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me
Many Jews believed Jesus ~ this miracle had to happen for the Jews to know Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah. Its not possible to convince a Jew to believe, but here the Father’s will was to make his Son glorified with a dead / decomposed man coming to life and large number of Jews turning to Jesus in their faith and followed him.
John 11:45-46 'Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. '
John 12:9 'Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. '
After this event Pharisees Opposed Jesus, fearing if we let Jesus perform miracles like this he will take our temples and our nation, they may be out of work hence they plotted to crucify Jesus. This was the trigger point for them to accuse him and take him to cross.
John 11:47-48 'Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” '
Raising of dead would have bought scores of Jews to believe in Jesus. This was a huge threat, they could not take more - “Here is this man performing many signs.”
Lessons from the Miracle
As sons and daughters, a lot to learn from Jesus
We have the same power and authority given to us .we forget that - we have the power to say come out with a loud voice like Jesus to raise dead. Its the same Jesus words “Come out” to raise a dead, when he drove demons “go away” . We can use the same power to turn things.
We have to glorify the Father / Son / the Holy Spirit. this is the order for a miracle to happen.
We have to say Lord / father when we address our Saviour.
As he came out he said take off your grave clothes and let him go..
I challenge to imagine a moment how that place would be to see a dead man who was decomposed revived again walking back it gives goose bumps to us to imagine that moment ~ Praise God for his mighty works.
Enemy is rattled when there are signs and miracles in unbelievers.. Cry out to God if you want a revival to happen to have that spirit being poured out. Pray for the nation to have that revival spirit so that many more can be saved like the many Jews that were saved in that time.. We have a lot of unsaved people in India.
Jesus no longer moved in public after the threat by Pharisees, We ought to follow the same, when threats of this comes, we have to be in private and not be in public till the appointed time comes along..
John 11:56-57 'They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.'
What did Jesus do ? John 11:54 'Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. '
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