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Let’s pause for a moment to get the perspective of John. In the first ten chapters, Christ has revealed Himself in an ever widening circle. This began at the wedding of Cana where there were guests and also His disciples. We are told that His disciples believed on Him. At the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Dedication, the whole nation was before Him. He presented Himself to the nation and He was rejected: His works were rejected in John 5:16; His words were rejected in John 8:58–59; and His Person was rejected in John 10:30–31.

This chapter is a kind of intermission. His public ministry is over and He retires into a private ministry. Centering Himself on individuals, He no longer is reaching out to the nation. The events of this chapter occur between the Feast of Dedication and the Passover which would be sometime between December and April.

The Gospel of John is like climbing up a mountain in that each chapter brings us a little higher than the preceding chapter. Remember that John has told us why he wrote this gospel: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30–31). Going back to the very beginning: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). While He walked among us in the flesh, this great thesis was sustained by miracle and parable and discourse.

Now the supreme question is: Can Jesus raise the dead? The big question in any religion concerns death. Death is a great mystery. And life is a great mystery, but life is practically meaningless if there is no resurrection of the dead. The question to ask of any religion is whether it has power over death.

Liberal theologians long ago threw out the miraculous. They contend that nothing miraculous belongs in the Bible—not because of any scholarly reason, but simply because they don’t believe in the miraculous. Today there is a synthetic doctrine that goes something like this: “I believe in a religion of the here and now, not the hereafter. I don’t go for pie in the sky by and by. I want a meat and potatoes religion, one that is practical, not theoretical.” Now that is something I want also. And in addition, I want a hope.

Although we are given many benefits right here and now, the greatest of all benefits is eternal life in Christ Jesus. It is very practical to ask the question: “Will the dead be raised?” Life is so brief. Life’s little day compared to eternity is infinitesimal. Recently I conducted the funeral of a very wonderful Christian man—and there sat his wife and mother. Certainly they considered the resurrection very practical. When you stand at a graveside, if you have no hope, you are whistling in the dark and singing in the rain and crying the blues.

I notice that in cults and religions of the day there are all kinds of chicanery and racketeering, but nobody is in the business of raising the dead. Although some of them have claimed they can raise the dead, they never produce the body, the corpus delicti. When Jesus healed the sick, it was the body that was healed. When Jesus raised the dead, it was the body that was raised. Many religions promise much for this life, but nothing for the hereafter. That is like taking someone for an airplane ride without knowing how to land the plane. The great hope of the Christian faith is the resurrection of the dead!

The Gospels tell us three incidents of Jesus raising the dead. There was the twelve-year-old girl who had just died. She was a juvenile. There was a young man, whose body was being carried to the cemetery. Then there was Lazarus, possibly a senior citizen, who had been dead four days and had been buried. They were all raised, from every age group.

Allow me to be technical and state that these people were raised from the dead but were not resurrected. Rather, it was a restoration to life. Resurrection is this: “… It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body …” (1 Cor. 15:42–44). These people were raised from the dead, but none of them were given glorified bodies. They all faced death again. Christ is the firstfruits of them that sleep. His is the only true resurrection—“… Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Cor. 15:23).

While our Lord used different methods to perform His miracles of healing, his method of raising the dead was always the same. He called to them and spoke to them as if they heard Him. Do you know why He did that? Because they heard Him! I think that when He returns with a shout, every one of us will hear his own name because He will call us back from the dead.

Note that Bethany is the town of Mary. This was written about a.d. 90 and by that time people knew about Mary who had anointed the feet of Jesus with spikenard. The fragrance of the box that she broke still fills this world. Jesus said that her act of devotion would be remembered wherever the gospel was preached. I am of the opinion that many a humble person is breaking an alabaster box of ointment and will have more recognition in heaven than many well-known Christian leaders who receive much publicity down here.

It was the home of Martha. Our Lord had visited there before. Martha had been cumbered and frustrated with her preparations for dinner. Jesus had told her that to sit at His feet and learn of Him is better than being too busy with service.

It was the town of Mary and the home of Martha. There are different gifts. Some women are given a marvelous gift in the home. Talk about women’s liberation! I know of no one who is the big boss more than a wife and a mother in her home. She can hustle you out of the kitchen, make you stay out of the refrigerator, and tell you to move when she wants to vacuum. She is in charge of the kitchen and of the whole house. This is the calling of many Christian women. There are others who have an outside ministry. They teach Bible classes and child evangelism classes, and work in the church. Remember, friend, the woman who serves in her home can be serving the Lord and the woman who serves outside her home can be serving the Lord. The Holy Spirit bestows gifts for many types of ministries.

These are humble folk, and they make no request, no demand of Him. They tell Jesus the problem and let Him decide what to do. So often in prayers I hear the people demanding that the Lord heal the sick. When did God become a Western Union boy? When did He become a waiter to wait upon us or a redcap boy to carry our suitcase? He doesn’t do things that way. Mary and Martha knew their Lord! “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.”

“He whom thou lovest.” Lazarus is loved by the Savior. Paul said, “He loved me” (see Gal. 2:20). John called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. Peter declared that Jesus loves us. And by the way, He loves you and He loves me. Anyone who is a child of God is one whom Jesus loves.

Some people say that a Christian should never be sick. Is sickness in the will of God? I wish Lazarus were here to tell you about that. Sickness is not a sign that God does not love you. “For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them” (Eccl. 9:1). In other words, you cannot tell by the circumstances of a man whether God loves him or not. You have no right to judge. “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts …” (1 Cor. 4:5). Jesus loved Lazarus when he was sick. Not only that, Jesus will let Lazarus die—but He still loves him.

He loves you when you are sick, He loves you when you are well, He loves you all the time. You can’t keep Him from loving you. You may ask why He lets certain difficulties happen to you. I don’t know the reason, but I do know He loves you. He loves you whether or not you are a Christian. You can’t keep Him from loving you. You can’t stop the sun from shining, but you can get out of the sunshine. And you can put up an umbrella to keep the love of God from shining upon your life.

Because He loves us, we are to come with boldness to present our problems to Him. Boldness means freedom of speech, opening your heart to Him. Boldness does not mean that your requests can be demands of God. Trouble tests our faith and puts us on our knees. Moses cried unto the Lord repeatedly when problems arose in the wilderness wanderings. Hezekiah took the threatening letter from the Assyrians and presented it to the Lord. The disciples of John the Baptist came to the Lord with the heartbreaking news when John was beheaded. My friend, it is down in the valley, even in the valley of the shadow of death, that we must learn to trust Him. He teaches us patience, teaches us that we can rest in Him, teaches us that He works all things well. We need to look beyond the tears, the sorrows, and the trials of life, and see that God has a purpose in everything that happens.

“This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.” Jesus permits this to happen because God will get the glory in it. We need to learn that we are not the center of the universe—nor is our home, our church, our town. The headquarters of everything are in heaven, and everything is running for His glory. Nothing will come into our lives without His permission, and if He permits it, it is going to be for His glory.

I do want you to notice that the Lord loved Martha. Sometimes we are very hard on Martha, very critical of her. The commentaries haven’t been kind to her. She was cumbered with much serving and she hadn’t learned the best thing, but that did not keep our Lord from loving her.

Does it seem cruel that Jesus let Lazarus die? No, there is a message here for us. The Lord Jesus was not motivated by sentiment, but He was subject to the Father’s will. Human sentiment would urge Him to go to Bethany immediately. But He deliberately let Lazarus die. Friend, sometimes He allows our loved ones to die. We need to recognize that He has a reason, and His ways are perfect. Jesus never moves by sentiment. That is what spoils people and that is how parents spoil their children. He is motivated by love, and that love is for the good of the individual and for the glory of God.

There are twelve hours in the day, and you can’t change that. Because the Father has given the Son a work to do, nothing can stop Him. There is a great principle here. God has given to each man a lifework. You can’t extend that for one day any more than you can keep the sun from going down in the afternoon. But, thank God, you are absolutely invulnerable until your work is done. Nobody, not even Satan, can thwart God’s purpose in your life if you are following Him. To fail to follow Him is dangerous. Then one is in darkness because He is the Light of the World. You can go into the danger zone with Him, and you won’t be touched. You will finish your work. But if you stay out in the darkness, if you walk in the darkness, you will stumble. There has been death in Bethany. If there is to be light in that time of darkness, Jesus must go there. He is the Light of the World.

The disciples did not understand what Jesus meant when He said that Lazarus was sleeping. Because many people today do not understand it either, we find people who talk about soul-sleep. Friend, sleep is for the body, never for the soul. This is true of both sleep in this life and the sleep of death. Death means separation. The body of the believer sleeps in the grave, but the spirit goes to be with Christ. For the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (see 2 Cor. 5:8). Jesus is called the firstfruits of them that sleep. Does this mean that Jesus is sleeping somewhere today? Absolutely not. He is in His glorified body. The believer goes immediately to be with the Lord, but the body sleeps until the day of resurrection when the body will be raised.

Death, for the believer, is a sleep for his body. Are you afraid of sleep? You shouldn’t be. Sleep is a relief from labor. It is the rest that comes for renewal and preparation for the new day that is coming. There is nothing quite as beautiful as the word sleep when it is used for the death of a believer. The body is put to sleep, to be awakened by our Lord. He is the only One who has the alarm clock. He is the only One who can raise the dead. One day He will come and we shall awaken in our new bodies.

The Greek word for resurrection is anastasis which means “a standing up.” C. S. Lewis, that brilliant Oxford don, ridiculing those who hold that resurrection is spiritual rather than physical, asked, “If it is the spirit that stands up, what position does it take?” There’s a question to work over! No, resurrection means a standing up, and it always refers to the body. The soul never dies, nor does the soul ever sleep.

Death is a reality, an awful reality of the body. But, remember, the resurrection is also reality. You see, man leaves off at death. Even in the hospital, there is a finality about death. Doctors will work and work over a patient. Then when he dies, they all stop working. When death comes, they are through. Science is helpless in the presence of death. Where man must leave off, Jesus begins. Resurrection is also reality.

A man in Pasadena told me, “When you die, you die just like a dog.” I answered, “Don’t you wish that were true?” “But,” I said, “if it’s not true (and I think that bothers you a little), you’re in trouble, aren’t you?” He turned away because he didn’t want to talk about that. People are afraid of death.

Mrs. McGee and I were in Wichita, Kansas, for a Bible conference, staying at a large motel there. We had dinner before the evening service and the bar room was loud with the “happy hour.” When we returned in the evening, word had arrived that the airplane carrying the football team had gone down. The coach and the first line of football players all had been killed. “Happy hour” was like a morgue then. They were silent, without hope. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow-disciples. Let us also go, that we may die with him [John 11:16].

Bethany is about two miles from the Golden Gate at Jerusalem. Many of the Jews walked from Jerusalem to Bethany to be with Martha and Mary. Apparently they were a prominent family in Bethany and were well known in Jerusalem.

Martha seems always to be the aggressive type. She is the woman of action. She reveals a wonderful faith but also an impatience and a lack of bending to the will of God. By contrast, Mary is willing to sit at home. She has learned to sit at Jesus’ feet.

We can see now that Martha should have been sitting at Jesus’ feet a little more. She says, “I know that if You will ask God.” Martha, don’t you realize that He is God? He is God, manifest in the flesh. He has been in your home, sat at your table and has eaten your biscuits, but you didn’t realize that He was God, did you? Oh, my friend, how we need to spend time at His feet. How we need to listen.

Martha believed in a resurrection. But listen, it makes less demand upon faith to believe that in a future day we shall receive glorified bodies than it does to rest now on the assurance that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. It is easier to believe that the Lord is coming and the dead will be raised than it is to believe that tomorrow I can live for God. It is so easy to comfort people who are mourning and say, “Well, you’ll see your loved ones someday.” That doesn’t take much faith. It takes a lot of faith to say, “I have just lost my loved one but I am comforted with the assurance that God is with me and He does all things well.” You see, although Martha knew from the Old Testament that there would be a resurrection from the dead, she didn’t believe that Jesus could help her now.

Jesus says to her, “Martha, don’t you know that I am the resurrection and the life?” If we have Jesus, we have life. “He that believeth in me, though he were dead” is referring to spiritual death. Though a person is spiritually dead, “yet shall he live.” Then He looks into the future and says that the one who has trusted Him shall never die. Life begins at the moment a person accepts the Savior. Whosoever lives and believes in Jesus will never die because Jesus has already died for him. That is, he will never die a penal death for his sins. He will never be separated from God. Then Jesus asks the question: “Believest thou this?”

The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there [John 11:28–31].

She was saying along with Martha that if Jesus had been there, her brother would not have died. This is why Jesus will say later on that it was expedient, it was better, for Him to go away. This incident makes it obvious why it was expedient. As long as He was here in the flesh, He was limited geographically. If He were in your town, He couldn’t be in my town. If Jesus had not gone away, He could not have sent the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. But now that the Holy Spirit has come, He is everywhere. He indwells every believer today. So the Holy Spirit can be where I am, where you are, and on the other side of the world simultaneously. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7).

If you want to know how God feels about the death of your loved ones, look at this. He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. Death is a frightful thing. And you can be sure that He enters into sympathy with you.

His sympathy was for the living. He knew what He was going to do for the dead. “Jesus wept.” While John’s gospel is written to show us the deity of Christ, here Jesus is shown in all His humanness. He even asked where Lazarus was laid because He was so human. And here we can see the way God feels at a funeral today. He mingles His tears with ours. He groans within Himself. I get a little impatient with Christians who say one must not cry at a funeral, but one must be a brave Christian. Death is not pretty; it is a terrible thing. Jesus wept!

The subject of death is skirted by people today. The undertakers try in every way to make death seem like a pleasant episode. But let us face it very frankly, we can’t cover up death by embalming and painting up the face, dressing the body in a good suit of clothes, then placing it in a pretty coffin surrounded by flowers. Although this is done to help soften the shock, death is an awful thing.

Martha said that he had been buried for four days already and his body would stink; it would be decaying. Someone may think that sounds crude. So is death crude. It is awful. This case is certainly going to require a miracle.

Remember that this whole incident is for the glory of God. Jesus prays audibly to let the people know that what He is going to do is the will of the Father so that the Father will get the glory. He voices His prayer for the benefit of those who are present.

I want to mention here that I think there were multitudes raised from the dead by Jesus Christ. I think there were multitudes who were healed, hundreds of blind people who received their sight. The Gospels record only a few instances for us.

Notice that for Lazarus, life was restored to the old body. He came out still wrapped in all the graveclothes. When our Lord rose from the dead, He left all the graveclothes in place just as they had been wrapped around His body, including the napkin which had been wrapped around his head. He came right out of them. Why? Because He came out in a glorified body. They didn’t need to roll away the stone for Jesus to come out. It was rolled away so the people on the outside could look in and see that the tomb was empty. His glorified body could leave the sealed grave and it could also enter a room with all the doors locked.

There is a beautiful picture of salvation in this. We were dead in trespasses and sins, dead to God, and are now made alive to God in Christ Jesus. But, friend, each of us is being held back by those graveclothes. Paul could say, “… For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I…. O wretched man that I am!….” (Rom. 7:15, 24). This was not an unsaved man talking; this was a believer. Jesus wants us to be free from those graveclothes. He says, “Loose him, and let him go.”

It may surprise you to learn that this is the end of the public ministry of Jesus when you see that we are only near the halfway mark in the Gospel of John. His public ministry began when John the Baptist marked Him out as the Lamb of God. It concluded when He raised Lazarus from the dead. John, you see, spent almost as much time on the last forty-eight hours before His death as he did on the first thirty-two years, eleven months, three weeks, and five days of His life. As a matter of fact, this is the pattern shared by all the Gospel writers. They placed the emphasis on the last eight days. There are eighty-nine chapters in the four Gospels. Four of these chapters cover the first thirty years of the life of Jesus and eighty-five chapters the last three years of His life. Of those eighty-five chapters, twenty-seven deal with the last eight days of His life. So about one-third of the gospel records deal with the last few days and place the emphasis on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Friend, it is a misrepresentation of the gospel if the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are not preeminent. In fact, that comprises the gospel (see 1 Cor. 15:1). The gospel writers did what Paul also did later on. He says, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

You would think that this crowning miracle would have turned these skeptics to Jesus, but it did not. Our Lord had said previously, you remember, “… If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31). That is the reason that God does not rend the heavens and come down in spectacular display. That is the reason God does not go about performing miracles today. After the church leaves the earth, during the Great Tribulation Period, and into the Millennium, there will be a period of great miracles, but even that will not convince people. Today we are asked in a quiet way to put our trust in Him even though the mob and the majority turn from Him. People complain that the crowd isn’t going after Jesus. Friend, it never did! He died, He was buried, He rose again from the dead, and that is the gospel. We don’t need a miracle. The problem is not in the lack of evidence. The problem is the unbelief of man.

This is a diabolical group. The chief priests at this time were largely Sadducees who were the “liberals” in that they did not accept miracles or the supernatural—which included resurrection. The Pharisees were the religious conservatives and the political rightists of that day. The two parties were absolutely opposed to each other in every way; yet here they join together in their hatred of Jesus Christ and in their determination to put Him to death. You might label this the first ecumenical movement. If men can get rid of Jesus Christ, they will join with even those of opposing views in their antagonism toward Him. This is the trend of the hour. The majority is attempting to get rid of Christ as He is revealed in the Word of God. It is the minority that accepts Jesus Christ as He is.

They feared there would be a mass turning to Jesus Christ which would bring a revolution. This would provide an occasion for Rome to pounce on them. They moved from a basis of fear. Fear is the motivation which keeps a great many people away from Jesus today. Even in our churches Christians lack the intestinal fortitude to stand on their two feet for the truth of Scripture and for men who teach it as the Word of God.

They begin to rationalize and say that Jesus should die rather than the nation die at the hand of Rome. It is interesting to note that although they did succeed in putting Jesus to death, in spite of this, the nation perished when Titus destroyed it in a.d. 70.

We find a strange thing here: Caiaphas’ accurate prediction because he was high priest that year! Caiaphas was a scheming politician, and later we will meet his father-in-law, Annas, who was also a mean rascal and the power behind the throne. That Caiaphas had the gift of prophecy should not fool us. Like Balaam in the Old Testament, this rascal could utter a true prophecy.

This is the beginning of the end, friend. They are openly trying to put Jesus to death and are openly hostile. We don’t know exactly where the city Ephraim is. It was probably out in rather wild country.

The crowds come to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. As they go through this endless ritual and rub shoulders with each other, there are differences of opinion and talk about Jesus. They wonder whether Jesus will come to the feast this year. They know the Sanhedrin is really after Him. You see, if they will not believe Moses, they will not believe even though one rose from the dead.

McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 4:435-443