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John 11
Yeshua Is Able To Bring The Dead To Life!

Death is a result of sin. Adam and Eve’s sin condemned them and their
descendants to death. Death is a reality for every human being, except for the
faithful remnant that is alive when Messiah returns.

Even though death is certain, many people are uncomfortable thinking about it.
They’re afraid of it. One Jewish comedian put it this way: “I’m not afraid of death.
I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” The fear of death can depress us. It
can warp our thinking and behaviors.

The good news is that it’s possible to overcome death. Yeshua promised that He
would enable those who become loyal to Him to overcome death. And He proved
He has the power to fulfill that promise by raising Lazarus from the dead.

John began his account of this great miracle with information that helps us
understand the situation. 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.) So the sisters sent word to Yeshua, “Lord, the one
you love is sick.”

Did Yeshua know this family?

Where do we find out more about Mary pouring perfume on the Lord and wiping
His feet with her hair?

The Father revealed to Yeshua what was about to happen and why it would
happen. When he heard this, Yeshua 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.”
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Yeshua knew that Lazarus was going to die from his sickness. He also knew that
God was going to use Him to bring Lazarus back to life. By doing that, Yeshua
would increase in honor. And, since a son who is honored brings honor to his
parents, when the Son of God is honored His Father is honored.

Love motivates us to help the ones we love. Yeshua’s love for Lazarus, Martha
and Mary motivated Him to help them. Now Yeshua loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus. 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.” Bethany
was in Judea. It was near Jerusalem.

Why did Yeshua stay where He was two more days and not immediately go to
Bethany?

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jewish leaders there tried to stone
you, and yet you are going back?” It made sense to the disciples to avoid the
leaders who wanted to kill Yeshua. It made no sense to go back into the lions’s
den so soon.

Yeshua answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in
the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person
walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

What does this mean?

How does this apply to us?

Yeshua often used physical things and processes like wind, bread, leaven, food,
water, birth, darkness and light, seeds and sowing and reaping to help people
understand spiritual realities. And, very often people didn’t understand what
Yeshua was communicating with His illustrations. That happened once again.
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.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he
sleeps, he will get better.” Yeshua had been speaking of his death, but his
disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
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What does sleeping represent? What does waking represent?

Why did Yeshua use sleeping to refer to Lazarus’s death?

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was
not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Might God delay doing something we want Him to do right away in order to help
us grow in faith?

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us
also go, that we may die with him.” Thomas is often called “Doubting Thomas.”
Even though Thomas thought all of them would be killed, he was still willing to
follow Yeshua to Judea. His willingness to follow Yeshua, even if it resulted in
death, revealed that Thomas had real faith.

On his arrival, Yeshua found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four
days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jewish
people had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.
When Martha heard that Yeshua was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary
stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Yeshua, “if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you
whatever you ask.”

Martha called Yeshua “Lord.” What does that indicate?

Yeshua is pleased with faith like that and rewarded her by telling her that He was
about to do something extraordinary. Yeshua said to her, “Your brother will rise
again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the
last day.”

What is the last day?

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Was Yeshua referring to Lazarus’ resurrection at the last day?

Then He made an astounding claim - that resurrection and eternal life are
connected to Him. He gives resurrection and eternal life to those who have faith in
Him. Yeshua 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.”

Then He asked Martha this question: Do you believe this?

She did believe it. She was a woman of extraordinary faith and insight. She had
more faith and insight than the leaders of the nation. “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I
believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Now John directed our attention to the other sister. After she had said this, she
went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Rabbi is here,” she said, “and is
asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now
Yeshua had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha
had met him. When the Jewish people who had been with Mary in the house,
comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her,
supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. When Mary reached the
place where Yeshua was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you
had been here, my brother would not have died.”

What indicates that Mary had great respect for Rabbi Yeshua?

When Yeshua saw her weeping, and the Jewish people 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. Yeshua wept.

What does this teach us about Yeshua?

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There are people who can always find something good in a situation. Then the
Jewish people said, “See how he loved him!” And that was true and a nice thing to
say. But there are others who can always find something to complain about. But
some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept
this man from dying?”

Again John let us know that Yeshua feels our pain. Yeshua, once more deeply
moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
“Take away the stone,” he said.

Martha didn’t like Yeshua’s plan to move the stone. “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.” Lazarus had been dead for four days. His body was decomposing. He
was completely and thoroughly dead.

When we are in a difficult situation, we can begin to doubt. It helps when those
with strong faith encourage us to continue to believe. Yeshua did that for Martha.
Then Yeshua said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of
God?”

Yeshua’s reminder to believe in Him was enough for her. Martha allowed the
stone to be removed. So they took away the stone.

Yeshua was at the entrance of the tomb. First, He spoke to God. Then Yeshua
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.”

Many Christians pray with their eyes closed and their heads bowed. In this
situation, did Yeshua pray that way?

In this short prayer, Yeshua acknowledged that God was His Father and He was
God’s Son. He thanked God for always hearing and answering His prayers. He
told His Father that He was praying out loud so that those who were present would
understand that it was His relationship to God and His prayers to God which
would enable what was about to happen, to happen.
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After speaking to God, Yeshua spoke to Lazarus. When he had said this, Yeshua
called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands
and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

According to the Bible, prior to the arrival of Yeshua, how many people who died
came back to life?

Have any of the founders of any other world religion ever raised anyone from the
dead?

Yeshua said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” New believers
are like Lazarus who was wrapped in . After Yeshua gives them new life, they may
have bad habits and ideas from their previous life that cling to them like Lazarus’
grave clothes. It’s the responsibility of older believers to help them remove them.

Therefore many of the Jewish people who had come to visit Mary, and had seen
what Yeshua did, believed in him. And, that was the right response to this great
miracle. And when everyone else heard about this, they too should have believed
in Yeshua. However that’s not what happened.

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Yeshua had done.
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. What
is 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.”

The leaders knew Yeshua was doing miracles. However, they were so far from
God that they believed He was a false prophet doing demonically empowered
miracles. And they believed that Yeshua’s increasing popularity would result in
Him leading a revolt against Rome. And the Romans would respond by destroying
the nation and the temple.
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Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You
know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die
for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

The high priest, Caiaphas, stated it was better for one man to die than the
alternative - that the Romans destroy the nation.

What is the primary function of the high priest?

John informed us that Caiaphas spoke the truth about the purpose of Yeshua’s
death, but in a way that he himself didn’t understand. He did not say this on his
own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Yeshua would die for the
Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of
God, to bring them together and make them one.

What does “he did not say this on his own” imply?

What are the purposes of Yeshua’s death?

And Yeshua needed to die to bring together the chosen ones from Israel and the
other nations and make a new, united humanity from them.

And Yeshua needed to die to save the scattered children of God.

Who are the scattered children of God?

The Sanhedrin had met. The high priest had given his decision. The leaders were
in agreement. They would kill Yeshua. So from that day on they plotted to take his
life.

Yeshua knew their decision and acted accordingly. Therefore Yeshua 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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The life and ministry of Yeshua were almost over. God was directing events to
Yeshua’s death and resurrection in Jerusalem at Passover. Yeshua’s death and
resurrection are two of the most important events in history. The rest of John’s
book focuses on them and the events connected to them.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country
to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.

What was involved in ceremonial cleansing?

They kept looking for Yeshua, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked
one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the holiday at all?” But the
chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where
Yeshua was should report it so that they might arrest him.