Lazarus, Come Forth

Understanding God’s Delays

A. Calvin “We are taught by this delay on his part, that we ought not to judge of the love of God from the condition which we see before our eyes. When we have prayed to him, he often delays his assistance, either that he may increase still more our ardor in prayer, or that he may exercise our patience, and, at the same time, accustom us to obedience.”

B. One area that we see this displayed is in Genesis 4:26

Genesis 4:26 NKJV

26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.

Another time we see this is in the sufferings of Paul in 2 Cor. 12:8-10

2 Corinthians 12:8–10 NKJV

8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

C. What does John 11:9-10 mean?

In the Roman and Jewish world, they split time into two twelves. Twelve hours of dark and twelve hours of light and at that time, you worked while it was light and stopped when it was dark. Jesus is using this as a metaphor to refer to Himself as the light of the world and that He must obey the will of the Father while He is here, for there will come a time when He is no longer in the world bodily to work in the manner He is seen in the gospels.

Understanding Life’s Distress 11-36

A. In verses 11-15 Jesus points out that He is going to wake Lazarus up. The disciples think that Jesus believes that Lazarus just needs a good alarm clock and tell Jesus that the sleep will help Lazarus heal up faster. This is when the Lord speaks plainly and tells them, “Lazarus is dead.” The language of “sleeping” for death is not uncommon and is used regularly of the fathers in the Old Testament and is a beautiful way to speak of those who have died. When Benjamin Keach’s wife died he wrote, “She has fallen asleep in the Lord.” One thing we need to point out though is that this sleep is only referring to the body, not the error of “soul sleep” which teaches that the soul sleeps with the body until the resurrection. Instead, when we die, our bodies wait for the resurrection, while our souls immediately enter the presence of the Lord. This is seen in Phil. 1:23

Philippians 1:23 NKJV

23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

and 2 Cor. 5:8

2 Corinthians 5:8 NKJV

8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

B. After this, Jesus teaches them, and us, a valuable lesson on the subject of distress in this life. Namely, that it is for our good. Calvin, again, writes:

“When God permits us to be overwhelmed with distresses, and to languish long under them, let us know that, in this manner, he promotes our salvation.”

When we endure the hardships of this world, God may use them to begin developing a longing in us for the world to come, but better yet, it should develop in us a longing for the One who is the maker of the world that is to come.

In verse 17-33 we witness both the distress and the faith of Mary and Martha. However, Martha mistakingly believes that Jesus is only talking about resurrecting Lazarus on the last day and not that day. That’s when Jesus teaches her that for those who believe, they possess eternal life. This does not mean that they will not physically die, but it does mean that we will never die spiritually. This scene of confusion, heartache, and distress provides a wonderful opportunity for the beauty of Jesus to shine. How? Well, in the distress of this broken world, we find comfort in the fact that the Lord sympathizes with us in verses 33-38.

In these texts we find Christ groaning, troubled, and weeping. Now, when we read verse 33 we need to understand what that phrase means. The Greek there literally means that Jesus was angry and indignant. I don’t believe that He is angry with them for their weak faith, rather I think that here we see the manifestation of divine hatred for the ravages of sin. We need to remember that death is not natural in the sense that it was not intended in creation. Rather, it is the fruit of the enemies perversion of God’s good world by virtue of our sinfulness against God. This is what makes 1 Cor. 15 so beautiful when it says:

1 Cor. 15:22

1 Corinthians 15:22 NKJV

22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:26 NKJV

26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

Next, we find that Jesus weeps in verse 35. So, in these passages we see the Lord’s humanity. That Jesus understands us, sympathizes with us, suffered alongside us. He is not different from us except for His sinlessness and so as He sees His beloved friend destroyed by death, His heart is grieved. So, when you and I face seasons of distress, we can understand them as times where God provokes us to long, to hate sin, and times to rest in Jesus, who knows and sympathizes with us.

Understanding Christ’s Deliverance

In the Jewish mind when someone died their soul hung near the body for three days which granted the possibility of coming back to life. This may be why Jesus waited as long as He did to come resurrect Lazarus as a way of ensuring that there was no hope in the minds of those around Him and no way they could accuse Him of just healing a sick man. Whichever it may be, this text strikes us with tremendous power as the Lord speaks as this dead man comes back to life.

About this text a man once said, “Jesus had to preface His call by saying ‘Lazarus” because if He had just said, ‘Come Forth!’ every grave in Jerusalem would’ve opened!”

Well, as we look at verse 42, Jesus tells us that the purpose of this miracle isn’t necessarily for Lazarus at all, but is for the faith of those who are watching so that they might believe that the Father truly sent Jesus into the world.

Ligonier ministries wrote on this and said, “Just as the Creator spoke life into existence at creation, so does He, in the person of Jesus Christ, speak and restore Lazarus to life.”

One thing that we must admit as we read this story is that Jesus makes it clear that He has power over both the living and the dead and is who He says He is which is “The Resurrection and the Life.”

While we can read this and find our hearts reassured about Jesus’s ability to resurrect us in the future, there is also something to be said here about the work of spiritual resurrection which Jesus is performing every day around the world. When God speaks, life is imparted and one way that God speaks today is through the preaching of His Word which is why it is so important for us to both attend worship and to share the Word to those around us.

Understanding Caiaphas’s Declaration

After all of this occurs, there are two groups which leave. Those which are persuaded to believe that Jesus is who He says He is and those who turn against Him and go to the Pharisees. Well, the magnitude of this reaches the highest office in the Jewish religion, the High Priest. When Caiaphas hears of this, he declares that it is beneficial for them that Jesus dies, however, Caiaphas said this thinking in the sense of his political career, but John tells us that the Spirit used him to prophesy a death which was far greater than he could ever image since it was in the death of Jesus that the children of God would be gathered to the Great Shepherd of Israel.