October 28, 2025 • 14 mins
A sealed tomb, a grieving family, and a risky return to Judea—John 11 doesn’t just tell a miracle story, it confronts how we think about time, hope, and the power behind the word resurrection. We walk through the chapter line by line and watch Jesus turn a late arrival into a living revelation: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Martha meets us first with clarity and courage. She believes Jesus could have prevented death and still leans forward in trust. We unpack why Jesus waited two extra days, how that timing dismantled a local superstition about three days after death, and what it reveals about God’s purpose in delay. Then Mary arrives in tears, and we pause where the text pauses: Jesus wept. Real empathy and real authority coexist as he stands before the stone, prays for the crowd’s sake, and calls into the darkness, “Lazarus, come out.” We explain the burial customs, the grave clothes, and the freeing command, “Unwrap him and let him go.”
Not everyone celebrates. Some believe, others report, and the high council plots to end the movement to “save” the nation from Rome. We highlight the sharp irony and the unintentional prophecy from Caiaphas that one man would die for the people—a line that points straight to the cross. Through it all, one theme holds the center: resurrection is not a date on the calendar but a Person who brings dead places back to life. If he can call a man out four days late by human reckoning, he can meet you in your delay, your grief, and your impossible.
Listen for practical reflection prompts, a fresh look at faith and lament, and a clear invitation to trust Jesus with the stones that still feel too heavy to move. If this episode encourages you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s the greatest miracle you’ve seen?
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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's wordtogether.
Well, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, John chapter 11.
(00:21):
And I'm gonna go ahead and tellyou, I know I say this every
time, but this is a good one.
Oh my goodness, this is a goodone.
And if I were to give this one atitle, it would be The
Resurrection is a Person.
Let me say it this way (00:33):
the resurrection is not an event,
the resurrection is a person,and his name is Jesus.
This is the one.
This is the chapter.
Most likely, this was the highpoint of Jesus' earthly
ministry.
This moment right here just bleweverybody's mind.
And we're gonna get to it injust a moment.
It's one of the most famousthings that Jesus did as far as
(00:53):
his earthly ministry, and we'regonna talk about it.
Include maybe a couple thingsyou didn't know that blew my
mind when I found out.
All right, but before we dothat, as always, man, I'm about
to start gushing like crazy.
I'm so excited about God's wordand especially this chapter
today.
But before that, if you likewhat we're doing, make sure you
like this video.
You subscribe to this channel.
I saw where it's like 60% ofpeople who watch these videos on
YouTube are not subscribed.
Like 80% of people have not leftus a review.
(01:16):
So make sure you're doing allthose things.
It really does help us get outthe word as we're trying to
build a spiritual community ofpeople that's just rallying
around God's word and justunderstanding the principles of
God's word one day at a time andliving accordingly.
So I want you to go on ourFacebook group at Bible
Discussion.
Excuse me, Bible BreakdownDiscussion.
Let's just talk about what'sgoing on.
And I want to ask this question.
(01:37):
Here we go.
What is the biggest miracle?
What is the greatest miracleyou've seen?
Now, everybody who's who'sexperienced salvation, that is
the greatest miracle.
If you've ever seen someone getsaved, that is the greatest
miracle.
Other than salvation, what isthe greatest miracle you've ever
seen?
I've experienced miracles in mylife.
I was healed of a broken ankleone time.
(01:57):
I've been healed of many thingsin my life.
And I've, my, my stepmother, shewas healed of a pinched nerve in
her back.
I mean, just I've seen so, or Ithink it was her neck, actually.
I've seen so many differentmiracles in my life.
I want to know on the Biblebreakdown discussion, what is
the greatest miracle you've everseen?
Because today we're gonna seeone.
It's amazing, it's awesome.
And I want to say again theresurrection is not an event,
(02:19):
the resurrection is a person,and his name is Jesus.
We're gonna be talking aboutLazarus, the man who died and
then the Lord brought back tolife.
It's gonna be awesome, it'sgonna be amazing.
Let's just jump in and read it.
So if you got your NLT Biblesopen to John chapter 11, we're
gonna start with verse numberone.
Here we go.
John chapter 11, verse one.
(02:40):
A man named Lazarus was sick.
He lived in Bethany with hissisters, Mary and Martha.
This is the Mary who laterpoured the expensive perfume on
the Lord's feet and wiped themwith her hair.
Her brother Lazarus was sick.
So the two sisters sent amessage to Jesus telling him,
Lord, your dear friend is verysick.
Now pause.
(03:00):
Now, likely what a lot ofhistorians think is many times
Lazarus was probably a friend ofJesus, and Lazarus would
probably have Jesus staying withthem whenever he was in town.
And so they would have gotten toknow Jesus over time.
Verse 4, but when Jesus heardabout it, he said, Lazarus'
sickness will not end in death.
No, it happened for the glory ofGod, so that the Son of God will
(03:23):
receive glory from this.
So although Jesus loved Mary,Martha, and Lazarus, he stayed
there for the next two days.
Finally, he said to hisdisciples, Let's go back to
Judea.
But his disciples objected,Rabbi, they said, Only a few
days ago people in Judea weretrying to stone you.
Are you going there again?
Jesus replied, There are twelvehours of daylight every day.
(03:46):
During the day people can walksafely.
They can see because they havethe light of this world.
But at night there is danger ofstumbling because they have no
light.
Our friend Lazarus has fallenasleep, but now I will go and
wake him up.
Then the disciples said, Well,Lord, if he is sleeping, he will
soon get better.
They thought Jesus meant Lazaruswas simply sleeping, but jazz
(04:08):
but Jesus meant Lazarus haddied.
So he said to them plainly,Look, Lazarus is in the dead.
And for your sakes, I'm glad Iwasn't there.
For now you can really believe.
Come, let's go to him.
Thomas, nicknamed the twin, saidto his fellow disciples, Let's
go, and we can just die withJesus.
(04:29):
Lazarus just, I don't, I don'tknow.
The Bible doesn't give context.
I don't know if he's being likecourageous, let us go die with
him.
Or if he's being slightlypassive aggressive, oh, let's go
and die with Jesus.
Either way, they about to seesomething amazing.
So when Jesus arrived atBethany, he told, uh, he was
told that Lazarus uh was hadalready been in the grave for
(04:50):
four days.
Bethany was only a few milesdown the road from Jerusalem.
Many of the people had come toconsole Mary and Martha in their
loss.
When Martha got word that Jesuswas coming, she went to meet
him.
But Mary stayed in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, Lord, ifyou had only been here, my
brother would not have died.
(05:11):
But even now I know that Godwill give you whatever you ask.
Jesus told her, Your brotherwill rise again.
Yes, Martha said, He will risewhen everyone else rises at the
last day.
I love this.
Listen, Jesus told her, I am theresurrection and the life.
Anyone who believes in me willlive even after dying.
(05:32):
Everyone who lives in me andbelieves will never die.
Do you believe this, Martha?
Now pause.
Once again, remember theresurrection is not an event,
the resurrection is a person,and his name is Jesus.
He gives life to whomever hewill.
And what he's saying here isthat if you believe in him, not
just that you believe he exists,but you put your faith and your
trust in him, no matter what youmay do on this earth, you live
(05:56):
eternally with him in heaven.
Verse 27, Jesus said, or Marthasaid, Yes, Lord, she told him, I
have always believed that youare the Messiah, the Son of God,
the one who has come into theworld from God.
And then she returned to Mary.
She called Mary aside from themourners and told him, The
teacher is here and he wants tosee you.
So Mary immediately went to him.
(06:17):
Jesus had stayed outside thevillage at a place where Martha
met him, and when the people whowere who were at the house
consulting Mary saw her leavingso hastily, they assumed she was
going to Lazarus' grave to weep,so they followed her there.
But when Mary arrived and sawJesus, she fell at his feet and
said, Lord, if you had only beenhere, my brother would not have
(06:38):
died.
And when Jesus saw her weepingand saw the other people
wailing, and deep anger welledup within him, and he was deeply
troubled.
Where have you put him?
he asked them.
They told him, Lord, come andsee.
And Jesus wept.
And the people who were standingnearby said, See how much he
loved him.
But they but some said, This manhealed a blind man.
(07:00):
Couldn't he have kept Lazarusfrom dying?
Jesus was still angry as hearrived at the tomb.
A cave with a stone rolledacross its entrance.
Roll the stone aside, Jesus toldthem.
But Martha, dead man's sister,protested, Lord, he has been
dead for four days.
The smell will be terrible.
Now pause for a second.
First of all, her answer is,yeah.
(07:22):
After four days, he's gonnastink.
But here's something that'sreally interesting.
According to history, there wasthis superstition at the time
that said that when someonewould die, they the spirit of
the dead person would kind ofhover around the dead body for
three days.
And after three days, thatspirit would then depart.
(07:42):
And so many times after youwould have a body that would
die, you would kind of hangaround a little bit just in case
that person's spirit decided tocome on back in again.
Now, it was a superstition andit wasn't true, but there was
this thought process behind itof it could be true and it might
be true.
And so there was this idea thatif Jesus had just come earlier,
then maybe he could have healedLazarus.
(08:04):
But now that he is dead fourdays, he is dead one day longer
than the holding pattern of thesuperstition.
And what I love about Jesus ishe waited until only a miracle
would do.
I love the idea that accordingto the superstition of the time,
it might have been understoodthat if Lazarus had been dead
for a day, then it'd be, well,you know, his spirit was already
(08:27):
around.
So could Jesus have done themiracle or did just the spirit
decide to come back in?
If it had been three days, itcould have been, well, you know,
but Jesus waited until even bylocal legend, Lazarus was like
dead, dead, like for real dead,like fully dead for all of my,
you know, uh for all of my uhprincess bride listeners, you
know, you know, he's fully dead.
(08:48):
And at that moment is when Jesussaid, now is the right time,
because I'm gonna set things upin such a way that only a
miracle would do.
So here we go.
Jesus responded in verse 40,didn't I tell you that you would
see God's glory if you believe?
So they rolled the stone aside,and Jesus looked up to heaven
and said, Father, thank you forhearing me.
You always hear me, but I saidit out loud for the sake of all
(09:11):
these people standing here, sothat they will believe you sent
me.
And then Jesus shouted, Lazarus,come out.
And the dead man came out withhis hands and feet bound and
graves closed, and his facewrapped in a headcloth.
Jesus told them, Unwrap him andlet him go.
What an amazing picture.
Lazarus is wrapped up, and whatthey would do when you would
(09:32):
die, is they would wrap you upsuper, super tight.
Now, this is gross, but theywould wrap you up super, super
tight because the body, since ithadn't been embalmed like it is
nowadays, and in the very dryclimate of the Middle East, the
body would decay very quickly.
The body would dry out all ofthe liquids and things would
evaporate and all that.
And so then pretty quickly,probably with about a year, a
(09:53):
lot of times what you'd haveleft would be the bones.
And you'd have some otherthings.
I don't want to get too gross,but you'd have many of the
bones.
And so what they would do isthey'd they'd tie it up really,
really tight so that as yourbody started to decay, it
wouldn't spread out everywhere,but it would still stay pretty
close.
And so Lazarus is completelybound up.
And so he's hopping around, andthey have to loose him so they
(10:13):
can let him go.
This amazing, amazing miracle.
But then look at this.
Verse 45 says, Many of thepeople who were with Mary
believed in Jesus when they sawthis happen.
But some of the Pharisees, uh,but they went to some Pharisees
and told them what Jesus haddone.
And the leading priests andPharisees called the high
(10:34):
council together.
Listen to this.
What are we going to do?
They asked each other.
The man certainly performsmiraculous signs.
If we allow him to go on likethis, soon everyone will believe
in him.
Then the Roman army will comeand destroy our temple and our
nation.
Caiaphas, who was the highpriest at the time, said, You
don't know what you're talkingabout.
(10:55):
You don't realize it is betterfor that one man should die than
for the people of the wholenation to be destroyed.
He did not say this for his own,but as high priest at the time,
he was led to prophesy thatJesus would die for the entire
nation.
And not only for the nation, butto bring together and unite all
the children of God scatteredaround the world.
Praise the Lord.
Verse 53.
(11:16):
So from now, from that time on,the Jewish leaders began to plot
Jesus' death.
As a result, Jesus stopped hispublic ministry among the people
and left Jerusalem.
He went to the place near thewilderness, to the village of
Ephraim, and stayed there withhis disciples.
It was now almost time for theJewish Passover celebration.
And many people from all overthe country arrived in Jerusalem
(11:39):
several days early so they couldgo through the purification
ceremony before the Passoverbegan.
They kept looking for Jesus, butthey stood around in the temple
and they said to each other,What do you think?
Won't he come to the Passover?
He won't come to the Passover,will he?
Meanwhile, the leading priestsand Pharisees had publicly
ordered that anyone seeing Jesusmust report it immediately so
(12:01):
they could arrest him.
So, as you can see, it's gettingtime.
The high priest, the Phariseeshave realized Jesus is too
dangerous to keep around.
Why?
Get this because he keepshealing folks, because he keeps
rising people from the dead.
But if you see the reason why isthey don't care that much about
the people, they don't want theRomans to see.
(12:23):
Because the Romans, they alreadyknow.
We talked about this yesterdaybecause of the the Maccabees and
different things.
They already know that theseJewish people are stubborn and
they like a good fight.
And so they are always lookingto try to keep the nation of
Israel down and stop them fromgetting rambunctious because
there's been a lot of revoltsover the past 400 years by these
(12:43):
Jewish people.
And so now the Pharisees areworried that if Jesus gets too
powerful, they're going to comein and destroy them.
But what they don't realize isthey're not dealing with a man,
they're dealing with someone whois the resurrection and the
life.
And I love this idea that theresurrection is not an event,
the resurrection is a person,and his name is Jesus.
(13:04):
And if Jesus can raise the dead,there is nothing he can't do in
your life.
Let's pray, and we'll be donefor today.
Father, thank you so much thatyou sent your son to this earth.
Jesus, I'm thankful, that youexisted before time itself, that
you are God, and that you arethe resurrection and the life.
And God, if you can resurrectLazarus, if you can come back to
(13:28):
life yourself, Lord, you can doanything.
And I celebrate you today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
Don't forget, John chapter 20says, But these things are
written that you may continue tobelieve that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God, andthat by believing in Him, you
have life by the power of Hisname.
(13:49):
I hope you experience that lifetoday.
And I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Johnchapter twelve.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's wordtogether.
Well, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, John chapter 11.
(00:21):
And I'm gonna go ahead and tellyou, I know I say this every
time, but this is a good one.
Oh my goodness, this is a goodone.
And if I were to give this one atitle, it would be The
Resurrection is a Person.
Let me say it this way (00:33):
the resurrection is not an event,
the resurrection is a person,and his name is Jesus.
This is the one.
This is the chapter.
Most likely, this was the highpoint of Jesus' earthly
ministry.
This moment right here just bleweverybody's mind.
And we're gonna get to it injust a moment.
It's one of the most famousthings that Jesus did as far as
(00:53):
his earthly ministry, and we'regonna talk about it.
Include maybe a couple thingsyou didn't know that blew my
mind when I found out.
All right, but before we dothat, as always, man, I'm about
to start gushing like crazy.
I'm so excited about God's wordand especially this chapter
today.
But before that, if you likewhat we're doing, make sure you
like this video.
You subscribe to this channel.
I saw where it's like 60% ofpeople who watch these videos on
YouTube are not subscribed.
Like 80% of people have not leftus a review.
(01:16):
So make sure you're doing allthose things.
It really does help us get outthe word as we're trying to
build a spiritual community ofpeople that's just rallying
around God's word and justunderstanding the principles of
God's word one day at a time andliving accordingly.
So I want you to go on ourFacebook group at Bible
Discussion.
Excuse me, Bible BreakdownDiscussion.
Let's just talk about what'sgoing on.
And I want to ask this question.
(01:37):
Here we go.
What is the biggest miracle?
What is the greatest miracleyou've seen?
Now, everybody who's who'sexperienced salvation, that is
the greatest miracle.
If you've ever seen someone getsaved, that is the greatest
miracle.
Other than salvation, what isthe greatest miracle you've ever
seen?
I've experienced miracles in mylife.
I was healed of a broken ankleone time.
(01:57):
I've been healed of many thingsin my life.
And I've, my, my stepmother, shewas healed of a pinched nerve in
her back.
I mean, just I've seen so, or Ithink it was her neck, actually.
I've seen so many differentmiracles in my life.
I want to know on the Biblebreakdown discussion, what is
the greatest miracle you've everseen?
Because today we're gonna seeone.
It's amazing, it's awesome.
And I want to say again theresurrection is not an event,
(02:19):
the resurrection is a person,and his name is Jesus.
We're gonna be talking aboutLazarus, the man who died and
then the Lord brought back tolife.
It's gonna be awesome, it'sgonna be amazing.
Let's just jump in and read it.
So if you got your NLT Biblesopen to John chapter 11, we're
gonna start with verse numberone.
Here we go.
John chapter 11, verse one.
(02:40):
A man named Lazarus was sick.
He lived in Bethany with hissisters, Mary and Martha.
This is the Mary who laterpoured the expensive perfume on
the Lord's feet and wiped themwith her hair.
Her brother Lazarus was sick.
So the two sisters sent amessage to Jesus telling him,
Lord, your dear friend is verysick.
Now pause.
(03:00):
Now, likely what a lot ofhistorians think is many times
Lazarus was probably a friend ofJesus, and Lazarus would
probably have Jesus staying withthem whenever he was in town.
And so they would have gotten toknow Jesus over time.
Verse 4, but when Jesus heardabout it, he said, Lazarus'
sickness will not end in death.
No, it happened for the glory ofGod, so that the Son of God will
(03:23):
receive glory from this.
So although Jesus loved Mary,Martha, and Lazarus, he stayed
there for the next two days.
Finally, he said to hisdisciples, Let's go back to
Judea.
But his disciples objected,Rabbi, they said, Only a few
days ago people in Judea weretrying to stone you.
Are you going there again?
Jesus replied, There are twelvehours of daylight every day.
(03:46):
During the day people can walksafely.
They can see because they havethe light of this world.
But at night there is danger ofstumbling because they have no
light.
Our friend Lazarus has fallenasleep, but now I will go and
wake him up.
Then the disciples said, Well,Lord, if he is sleeping, he will
soon get better.
They thought Jesus meant Lazaruswas simply sleeping, but jazz
(04:08):
but Jesus meant Lazarus haddied.
So he said to them plainly,Look, Lazarus is in the dead.
And for your sakes, I'm glad Iwasn't there.
For now you can really believe.
Come, let's go to him.
Thomas, nicknamed the twin, saidto his fellow disciples, Let's
go, and we can just die withJesus.
(04:29):
Lazarus just, I don't, I don'tknow.
The Bible doesn't give context.
I don't know if he's being likecourageous, let us go die with
him.
Or if he's being slightlypassive aggressive, oh, let's go
and die with Jesus.
Either way, they about to seesomething amazing.
So when Jesus arrived atBethany, he told, uh, he was
told that Lazarus uh was hadalready been in the grave for
(04:50):
four days.
Bethany was only a few milesdown the road from Jerusalem.
Many of the people had come toconsole Mary and Martha in their
loss.
When Martha got word that Jesuswas coming, she went to meet
him.
But Mary stayed in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, Lord, ifyou had only been here, my
brother would not have died.
(05:11):
But even now I know that Godwill give you whatever you ask.
Jesus told her, Your brotherwill rise again.
Yes, Martha said, He will risewhen everyone else rises at the
last day.
I love this.
Listen, Jesus told her, I am theresurrection and the life.
Anyone who believes in me willlive even after dying.
(05:32):
Everyone who lives in me andbelieves will never die.
Do you believe this, Martha?
Now pause.
Once again, remember theresurrection is not an event,
the resurrection is a person,and his name is Jesus.
He gives life to whomever hewill.
And what he's saying here isthat if you believe in him, not
just that you believe he exists,but you put your faith and your
trust in him, no matter what youmay do on this earth, you live
(05:56):
eternally with him in heaven.
Verse 27, Jesus said, or Marthasaid, Yes, Lord, she told him, I
have always believed that youare the Messiah, the Son of God,
the one who has come into theworld from God.
And then she returned to Mary.
She called Mary aside from themourners and told him, The
teacher is here and he wants tosee you.
So Mary immediately went to him.
(06:17):
Jesus had stayed outside thevillage at a place where Martha
met him, and when the people whowere who were at the house
consulting Mary saw her leavingso hastily, they assumed she was
going to Lazarus' grave to weep,so they followed her there.
But when Mary arrived and sawJesus, she fell at his feet and
said, Lord, if you had only beenhere, my brother would not have
(06:38):
died.
And when Jesus saw her weepingand saw the other people
wailing, and deep anger welledup within him, and he was deeply
troubled.
Where have you put him?
he asked them.
They told him, Lord, come andsee.
And Jesus wept.
And the people who were standingnearby said, See how much he
loved him.
But they but some said, This manhealed a blind man.
(07:00):
Couldn't he have kept Lazarusfrom dying?
Jesus was still angry as hearrived at the tomb.
A cave with a stone rolledacross its entrance.
Roll the stone aside, Jesus toldthem.
But Martha, dead man's sister,protested, Lord, he has been
dead for four days.
The smell will be terrible.
Now pause for a second.
First of all, her answer is,yeah.
(07:22):
After four days, he's gonnastink.
But here's something that'sreally interesting.
According to history, there wasthis superstition at the time
that said that when someonewould die, they the spirit of
the dead person would kind ofhover around the dead body for
three days.
And after three days, thatspirit would then depart.
(07:42):
And so many times after youwould have a body that would
die, you would kind of hangaround a little bit just in case
that person's spirit decided tocome on back in again.
Now, it was a superstition andit wasn't true, but there was
this thought process behind itof it could be true and it might
be true.
And so there was this idea thatif Jesus had just come earlier,
then maybe he could have healedLazarus.
(08:04):
But now that he is dead fourdays, he is dead one day longer
than the holding pattern of thesuperstition.
And what I love about Jesus ishe waited until only a miracle
would do.
I love the idea that accordingto the superstition of the time,
it might have been understoodthat if Lazarus had been dead
for a day, then it'd be, well,you know, his spirit was already
(08:27):
around.
So could Jesus have done themiracle or did just the spirit
decide to come back in?
If it had been three days, itcould have been, well, you know,
but Jesus waited until even bylocal legend, Lazarus was like
dead, dead, like for real dead,like fully dead for all of my,
you know, uh for all of my uhprincess bride listeners, you
know, you know, he's fully dead.
(08:48):
And at that moment is when Jesussaid, now is the right time,
because I'm gonna set things upin such a way that only a
miracle would do.
So here we go.
Jesus responded in verse 40,didn't I tell you that you would
see God's glory if you believe?
So they rolled the stone aside,and Jesus looked up to heaven
and said, Father, thank you forhearing me.
You always hear me, but I saidit out loud for the sake of all
(09:11):
these people standing here, sothat they will believe you sent
me.
And then Jesus shouted, Lazarus,come out.
And the dead man came out withhis hands and feet bound and
graves closed, and his facewrapped in a headcloth.
Jesus told them, Unwrap him andlet him go.
What an amazing picture.
Lazarus is wrapped up, and whatthey would do when you would
(09:32):
die, is they would wrap you upsuper, super tight.
Now, this is gross, but theywould wrap you up super, super
tight because the body, since ithadn't been embalmed like it is
nowadays, and in the very dryclimate of the Middle East, the
body would decay very quickly.
The body would dry out all ofthe liquids and things would
evaporate and all that.
And so then pretty quickly,probably with about a year, a
(09:53):
lot of times what you'd haveleft would be the bones.
And you'd have some otherthings.
I don't want to get too gross,but you'd have many of the
bones.
And so what they would do isthey'd they'd tie it up really,
really tight so that as yourbody started to decay, it
wouldn't spread out everywhere,but it would still stay pretty
close.
And so Lazarus is completelybound up.
And so he's hopping around, andthey have to loose him so they
(10:13):
can let him go.
This amazing, amazing miracle.
But then look at this.
Verse 45 says, Many of thepeople who were with Mary
believed in Jesus when they sawthis happen.
But some of the Pharisees, uh,but they went to some Pharisees
and told them what Jesus haddone.
And the leading priests andPharisees called the high
(10:34):
council together.
Listen to this.
What are we going to do?
They asked each other.
The man certainly performsmiraculous signs.
If we allow him to go on likethis, soon everyone will believe
in him.
Then the Roman army will comeand destroy our temple and our
nation.
Caiaphas, who was the highpriest at the time, said, You
don't know what you're talkingabout.
(10:55):
You don't realize it is betterfor that one man should die than
for the people of the wholenation to be destroyed.
He did not say this for his own,but as high priest at the time,
he was led to prophesy thatJesus would die for the entire
nation.
And not only for the nation, butto bring together and unite all
the children of God scatteredaround the world.
Praise the Lord.
Verse 53.
(11:16):
So from now, from that time on,the Jewish leaders began to plot
Jesus' death.
As a result, Jesus stopped hispublic ministry among the people
and left Jerusalem.
He went to the place near thewilderness, to the village of
Ephraim, and stayed there withhis disciples.
It was now almost time for theJewish Passover celebration.
And many people from all overthe country arrived in Jerusalem
(11:39):
several days early so they couldgo through the purification
ceremony before the Passoverbegan.
They kept looking for Jesus, butthey stood around in the temple
and they said to each other,What do you think?
Won't he come to the Passover?
He won't come to the Passover,will he?
Meanwhile, the leading priestsand Pharisees had publicly
ordered that anyone seeing Jesusmust report it immediately so
(12:01):
they could arrest him.
So, as you can see, it's gettingtime.
The high priest, the Phariseeshave realized Jesus is too
dangerous to keep around.
Why?
Get this because he keepshealing folks, because he keeps
rising people from the dead.
But if you see the reason why isthey don't care that much about
the people, they don't want theRomans to see.
(12:23):
Because the Romans, they alreadyknow.
We talked about this yesterdaybecause of the the Maccabees and
different things.
They already know that theseJewish people are stubborn and
they like a good fight.
And so they are always lookingto try to keep the nation of
Israel down and stop them fromgetting rambunctious because
there's been a lot of revoltsover the past 400 years by these
(12:43):
Jewish people.
And so now the Pharisees areworried that if Jesus gets too
powerful, they're going to comein and destroy them.
But what they don't realize isthey're not dealing with a man,
they're dealing with someone whois the resurrection and the
life.
And I love this idea that theresurrection is not an event,
the resurrection is a person,and his name is Jesus.
(13:04):
And if Jesus can raise the dead,there is nothing he can't do in
your life.
Let's pray, and we'll be donefor today.
Father, thank you so much thatyou sent your son to this earth.
Jesus, I'm thankful, that youexisted before time itself, that
you are God, and that you arethe resurrection and the life.
And God, if you can resurrectLazarus, if you can come back to
(13:28):
life yourself, Lord, you can doanything.
And I celebrate you today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
Don't forget, John chapter 20says, But these things are
written that you may continue tobelieve that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God, andthat by believing in Him, you
have life by the power of Hisname.
(13:49):
I hope you experience that lifetoday.
And I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Johnchapter twelve.
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