The Gospel of John Lesson 39 (6-23-2013) John 11:11-16

The Gospel of John Lesson 39 (6-23-2013)

Lesson 39 – John 11:11-16

In our last study we saw that Martha and Mary had sent messengers to Jesus telling Jesus that Lazarus was very sick requesting Him to come and help quickly. But, Jesus in obeying the Father delays initially in His coming. However, now, John 11:7-10, it was time to go to Bethany in Judea. But, first, He takes a moment before going to use the situation at hand to instruct His disciples concerning priorities and principles of the Kingdom telling them that they must work while there is light.

Things are moving pretty fast at this point. There is not much time left. Jesus’ day this side of the Cross is almost over. His day is almost gone. He has much yet to teach His disciples concerning the Father, the Spirit, God’s work and God’s Kingdom. Soon, Jesus would pass the baton of God’s work and His Church off to them. It would be very easy to be preoccupied in reading this section of Scripture with Lazarus’ resurrection and miss these important truths and lessons.

Over the next ten or so chapters we will get an insider’s view of literally the last ‘days’ of Jesus’ life this side of the Cross and the crash course on theology and teachings concerning the Kingdom that He gave to His disciples. May we also be good disciples. If we are too casual in reading this section we will miss some very important spiritual truths and principles.

In v. 11 Jesus continues the conversation by laying out the initial details and purpose of their visit to Jerusalem. At this time His disciples were unaware that this would be their final trip together. He begins in v. 11 to teach them another deep, profound and yet simple spiritual truth using the situation at hand concerning Lazarus’ death.

He begins by relating Lazarus’ death to falling asleep. It is important to make the distinction here as we begin to discuss Jesus’ perspective concerning Lazarus’ condition and situation as related to his death and death in general. It is important to note that Jesus does not see all death or death in general as He will portray it concerning Lazarus. As a matter of fact this is the distinction and spiritual truth that He is making to those present, and, also to us. That is, that the death of a believer is in reality no death at all.

Jesus made the statement to those present, which included the Pharisees, in John 8:51 that if a man keep His sayings that they will never see death. And, in John 5:24 He told them if one would hear His message and believe that He was from the Father that they would pass from death to life referring to life eternal. This is much different than the reality that He shares in the Gospels of the physical death of the non believer, which in reality is true death.

In v. 11 Jesus begins sharing this spiritual lesson and truth by equating Lazarus’ death with sleep. When we search the Scriptures concerning this premise we find that this is indeed not an isolated passage concerning the state of a believer and what we would term as death. We find in Matthew chapter 9:24 that Jesus made a public statement to those present that the maid that appeared to have died to everyone else was not dead at all, but according to Jesus and His point of view was asleep. In saying this, those present laughed Him to scorn. But, Jesus saw a reality that they could not.

However, this view of sleep does not translate to the non believer. Jesus’ words to the unbeliever of their outcome are not good. Instead He gives them sober warnings that their death is true death and that their end should be considered before it is too late.

We have seen many such warnings in John’s Gospel concerning those who rejected and would not believe Christ’s message choosing to remain in darkness and death. The connotation and meaning of death spoken of for them is not just physical death, but death eternal as well, and, the death referred to is not eternal sleep, but being very much alive and yet ‘dead to God’.

One the best examples of this truth is found in Luke’s Gospel chapter 16:19-31. (Read) In reading this passage, you will find that there is a different outcome between Lazarus and the rich man when passing from this life, each ending up in a different place. Most believe that the picture given here, although not the final final destination, is however, representative of what awaited each of them following physical death. It says that the rich man ended up in a place of torment, but Lazarus went to be in the same place as Abraham the father of our faith.

In John 11:11 Jesus gives us a true picture of death for the believer. In what we term humanly as death in this world, for the believer it is as sleep to this life. In this world, while we sleep we are not aware of this physical world around us and what goes on. We are in another world so to speak, a sleep or dream world, which at the time may be just as real to us at that moment as what we consider the real world. Only God knows the reality of that world, that is the sleep world.

 Our passing as believers Jesus says is much like that, the example of falling asleep. We pass from one reality to another going to be with Christ. This is a mystery, of course, and is not fully understood. Some of this mystery is clear to us and other details are vague or not clearly understood at all.

Job spoke of this passing when he was longing for some relief from his pain in Job chapter 14. In verses 10-15 he speaks of his passing as actual relief from his then present situation and that after passing he would be raised from sleep at God’s appointed specific time, vs. 12-3. Job says in v. 15 that God will call him and that he will answer. One Scofield reference footnote makes mention that some bible interpreters believe this occurred following Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus being the first of many to rise. This is indicated in Matthew’s Gospel in chapter 27 verses 51-3. It is sure, however, from all Scripture that our passing is not the cessation of consciousness and that the passing of the non believer is not the same as the faithful.

Although we do not understand fully the passing of one who believes in Christ and His message, it is clear that our passing is not unto death, but it is unto ‘life’. Jesus here in John 11:11 refers to it as falling asleep. The term death does not according to Jesus apply to one who believes and receives His message.

Again, this is not an isolated passage or concept. Stephen when he was stoned upon his death was referred to as falling asleep, Acts 7:60. In I Cor. 15:6 Paul refers to the passing of some of the saints that saw Christ after His resurrection as falling asleep and later in that chapter in v. 51-4 make reference to the death of a believer again as sleep. Other references such as I Thes. 4:13-5 and II Peter 3:4 also state such.

It is pretty universal that death is feared as the great hurdle. Hebrews makes reference to this in Heb. 2:14-5 where the writer of Hebrews assures us that we have nothing to worry about. Martha in coming to Jesus did not see the passing of Lazarus as Jesus did. Neither did His disciples. Most of the time, neither do we.

In John 11:11 Jesus refers to Lazarus’ death as falling asleep. In v. 12 the disciples’ response tells us that they were not thinking on the same level as Jesus. They respond by saying in essence “if our friend Lazarus is sleeping, let’s let him sleep. We will catch up with him later”. But, in v. 14 Jesus makes it clear to them the seriousness of the situation at hand hoping that they will begin to get the reality that He is trying to convey to them. At the end of v. 11 He makes an interesting statement. He tells His disciples what He is about to do when they go to see Mary and Martha. But, are they listening?

He tells them that He intended to wake Him. Jesus in saying this to His disciples was not mistaken concerning Lazarus’ state. Lazarus is dead from a human perspective and Jesus knew it! In the next couple of verses He will relay this plainly to disciples and we will also see Martha and Mary confirm to us Lazarus’ death also later in this chapter.

But, in v. 15 we see Jesus make a statement that is significant in two ways. First, in v. 15 we see a significant emotion expressed by Jesus that is easy to miss if we were not paying close enough attention. He tells them that “I am glad for your sakes that I was not there”. At the time I am sure that His disciples might have wondered what He meant by this. At the time we must remember that they had no idea what was about to happen and they were at a disadvantage as compared to us in understanding what Jesus meant by this because we get to read ahead, we know the outcome of Jesus’ visit. But, in knowing the end we also can see the emotion and compassion that Jesus expresses here in v. 15. In reading ahead to v. 35 we know that Jesus gets all choked up about this subject, so much so that He cannot control His emotions.  

This account is indeed a tender part of the Scriptures, for it shows to us plainly the heart of our God toward us. Yes He is a softy when He thinks about us especially during the reality of the difficult and serious parts of life. His heart does break when we face the difficulties of this life, Isaiah 53, Heb. 2:18 and 4:15. We see here Jesus state that if He had been present when Lazarus had died that He would not have been able to control Himself and wait out the days to raise him.  Jesus knew that God had a purpose and will in the death of Lazarus. Because of His tender heart He had to stay away.

The second thing we see in v. 15 is that apparently the disciples’ faith was not complete as yet. He makes the statement that the main reason for the events that were about to happen was to deepen their faith and commitment in Him. These were the guys that He would eventually hand over His work and ministry to. Through them He would found Church. He only had a few days left to get them ready. The raising of Lazarus would be one of the major events to complete their commitment to Him. In v. 16 we see their response to this. They as yet did not fully understand, but as yet were timidly willing to go with Him knowing the potential danger that was there. Later we will see them demonstrate a more bold reaction to such conditions their commitment at that time being complete.