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Introduction
Last week, we conclude with Christ’s statement in John 10:36.
As you may recall, this statement was made in conjunction with His statement in verse 30 when He said,
The impact of His statement was not lost on those who heard His claim.
A claim by which Christ openly identified Himself as being God.
Their reaction was noted in verse 31.
Christ then challenged their hypocrisy.
They were taking up stones to stone Him yet, they readily accepted the claim of Jewish judges to be the sons of God as well.
Yet, here, they were willing to stone Him for making the same claim.
However, Christ’s claim to the Son of God was much more substantiated through His works.
And, in verses 37-38, Christ made an appeal for them to at least believe the works that He did.
However, in the end, we note in verse 39 that
At this point, Christ does something that was quite significant.
Look at verse 40.
If you recall, all that has taken place in chapters 9 and 10 were done in and around the Temple in Jerusalem.
Now, we see Christ leaving Jerusalem and returning to Jordan.
Christ does not return again to Jerusalem until His appointed “hour” of His death.
Now, you must remember that Jordan is the place of the forerunner.
Who was Christ’s forerunner?
Who was the one who came on the scene first “to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believer?”
It was in and around Jordan that John preached and ministered.
It was in the Jordan river that Christ was baptized by John.
A baptism that began Christ’s earthly ministry.
Now, in our text, we see Christ returning there.
He had offered Himself to the nation as their Messiah.
In John 10, the people asked...
Christ plainly told them
Their actions gave their answer.
They took up stones to stone Him.
In that moment, when all was revealed, they, as a nation rejected Him.
A rejection which later culminates in them yelling “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
The next chapter, John 11, opens with news coming to Him that Lazarus, “he whom thou lovest” (v. 2), is sick.
Christ responds to the news saying
Verse 6 tells us that Christ did not hurry to Lazarus’ side during his illness, instead, Christ remained in Jordan for two more days.
After two days, Christ then instructs His disciples they were going to back Judea.
Of course, their initial reaction was the Jews seeking to stone Christ.
His answer was...
The essence of His answer was the Jews continue to live in darkness.
He had offered them Light, but they had rejected it.
There was nothing more to be done.
However, just as there are twelve hours in a day so Christ had a mission to accomplish.
Then, Christ tells them some important news.
We find an interesting statement by Thomas in reaction to the news.
You can hear the sarcasm in his voice here.
Lazarus is dead.
The Jews want to kill us.
So, let’s all go be with Lazarus so we can die with him.
Obviously, Thomas still had much to learn about Christ.
Verses 17-19 provides the following details.
Why does the Holy Spirit mention four days?
Lazarus truly was dead.
Just a week or so ago, some of us were talking about funeral “wakes.”
We were talking about how “wakes” started.
Essentially, “wakes” started before we had modern health equipment as we do today.
Back in the early days, people were known to wake up after being declared dead.
Thus, “wakes” were used to watch over a person’s body to ensure they were truly dead and did not “wake” up.
I believe four day was a sufficient amount of time to determine if Lazarus was dead.
At this point, there is no doubt.
He is dead.
It in next few verses we find our text.
In these verses, verses 20-27, there is conversation recorded by the Holy Spirit between Lazarus’ sister, Martha, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s read the conversation and then come back to make some observations.
There is no doubt that Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were close to the Christ during His earthly ministry.
Go back to...
Of the three, Martha was all action.
Here we find not hesitating, instead, she learns Christ is coming and she goes to meet Him.
Meanwhile, her sister, Mary “sat still in the house.”
Martha was an active, busy, and, at times, impulsive woman.
Mary was just the opposite.
She was quite, pensive, meditative and meek.
Yet, Christ loved them both.
The first thing Martha says to Christ is...
Martha’s response was not a rebuke of the Lord.
Instead, it was acknowledgment of Christ’s ability to heal the sick.
We see in her as well as in her sister a strange mixture of faith and unbelief.
Yes, Martha as well as Mary were confident Christ’ power to do miracles.
However, both limited that power to just healing the sick.
Note again she says, “if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”
It never occurs to her that Christ had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead.
APPLICATION: Let’s be quick to judge her though.
We do the same thing.
We only see what we want to see even in our situations.
How many times have said Lord if you would only do such and such then everything will be okay?
It is quite possible that God wants to do something much different than even our feeble minds can know and understand.
Such was the case with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
Yet, so many times, we, as believers, have a dual personality.
We portray that same strange mixture of faith and unbelief.
By the way, did it matter how near or how far Christ is concerning His ability to perform miracles?
You will note that Martha put Christ being near in connection with His ability to perform miracles.
The fact is Christ already knew Lazarus was sick and even knew the moment he died.
No one came bearing news that Lazarus had died.
Yet, Christ told them after two days that he was dead.
How did He know?
He knew because He is God.
The point that I am trying to make is that Christ is always near.
For Martha, Christ was away in Jordan and not there in Bethany with them during Lazarus’ illness.
For us, we view Christ as being in Heaven which seems so far away.
Yet, Christ gave us this promise.
Yes, He may be in Heaven, but He is also right here with us even now.
Note further Martha’s confession in verse 22.
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