Lazarus Came Forth & So Did Others

~ Lazarus ~
John 11:1-45

Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, were friends of Jesus. When Lazarus fell ill, his sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." When Jesus heard the news, he waited two more days before going to Lazarus' hometown of Bethany. Jesus knew that he would do a great miracle for God's glory and, therefore, he was not in a hurry.

When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead and in the tomb for four days. When Martha discovered that Jesus was on his way, she went out to meet him. "Lord," she said, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Jesus told Martha, "Your brother will rise again." But Martha thought he was talking about the final resurrection of the dead.

Then Jesus said these important words: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

Martha then went and told Mary that Jesus wanted to see her. Jesus had not yet entered the village, most likely to avoid stirring up the crowd and calling attention to himself. The town of Bethany was not far from Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders were plotting against Jesus.

When Mary met Jesus she was grieving with strong emotion over her brother's death. The Jews with her were also weeping and mourning. Deeply moved by their grief, Jesus wept with them.

Jesus then went to the tomb of Lazarus with Mary, Martha and the rest of the mourners. There he asked them to remove the stone that covered the hillside burial place. Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed to his Father, closing with these words: "Lazarus, come out!" When Lazarus came out of the tomb, Jesus told the people to remove his grave clothes.

As a result of this incredible miracle, many people put their faith in Jesus.

• Jesus also raised from dead,
Jairus' daughter
 (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:41-42; Luke 8:52-56)
 and a widow's son
 (Luke 7:11-15).

Others who were raised from the dead in the Bible:

In 1 Kings 17:22 Elijah raised a boy from the dead.
In 2 Kings 4:34-35 Elisha raised a boy from the dead.
In 2 Kings 13:20-21 Elisha's bones raised a man from the dead.
In Acts 9:40-41 Peter raised a woman from the dead.
In Acts 20:9-20 Paul raised a man from the dead.

• Through the raising of Lazarus, Jesus showed the disciples, and the world, that he had power over death. Many believed that Jesus was the Son of God and they put their faith in him after seeing this miracle. It is absolutely essential to our faith as Christians that we believe in the resurrection from the dead.

• In this story of Lazarus, Jesus speaks one of the most powerful messages ever: "Whoever believes in me, Jesus Christ, receives spiritual life that even physical death can never take away."

• Jesus revealed his compassion for people through a genuine display of emotion. Even though he knew that Lazarus would live, he was still moved to weep with the ones he loved. Jesus cared about their sorrow. He was not timid to show emotion and we should not be ashamed to express our true feelings to God. Like Martha and Mary, we can be transparent with God because he cares for us.

• Jesus waited to travel to Bethany because he knew already that Lazarus would be dead and that he would perform an amazing miracle there, for the glory of God. Many times we wait for the Lord in the midst of a terrible situation and wonder why he doesn't respond more quickly. Often God allows our situation to go from bad to worse because he's planning to do something powerful and wonderful; he has a purpose that will bring even greater glory to God.

Are you in a difficult trial? Do you feel like God is delaying much too long to answer your need? Do you trust God even in the delay? Remember the story of Lazarus. Your situation could not be any worse than his! Trust that God must have a purpose for your trial, and that he will bring glory to himself through it.


What Did Lazarus See?

Most of us, especially Christians, have spent some time wondering what heaven will be like. Wouldn't you have been eager to know just what Lazarus saw during those four days he ventured into the afterlife?
Curiously, the Bible doesn't reveal what Lazarus saw after his death and before Jesus raised him back to life. But it does make plain one very important truth about heaven. We know from the Bible that the chief priests later tried to kill Lazarus and that's pretty much it.

Let's think about this whole thing for a minute from a personal perspective.

One of your best friends has died. Inconsolable, you cry not only at his funeral, but for days afterward. Then another friend of the deceased comes to visit. He starts saying strange things. You listen to him intently, because your friends' sisters have great respect for him, but you can't grasp what he means.

Finally, he commands that the grave be opened. The sisters protest, but the man is adamant. He prays loudly, looking up to heaven, then after several seconds, your dead friend walks out of his grave - alive!

Nowhere in Scripture do we learn what Lazarus saw after he died. If you knew him, wouldn't you have asked him? Wouldn't you want to know what happens after your heart beats for the last time? Wouldn't you pester your friend until he told you everything he saw?



What Became of Lazarus
The Plot to Kill a Dead Man

Lazarus is mentioned again in John 12:10-12: "So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him." (NIV)

Whether Lazarus told his neighbors about heaven is only speculation. Perhaps Jesus commanded him to be silent about it. The fact remained, however, that he had been dead and now was alive again.

Lazarus' very presence - walking, talking, laughing, eating and drinking, embracing his family — was a cold slap in the face to the chief priests and elders. How could they credibly deny that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah when he had raised a man from the dead?

They had to do something. They couldn't dismiss this event as a magician's trick The man had been dead and in his tomb four days. Everyone in the tiny village of Bethany had seen this miracle with their own eyes and the whole countryside was buzzing about it.

Did the chief priests follow through with their plans to kill Lazarus? The Bible doesn't tell us what happened to him after Jesus' crucifixion. He's never mentioned again.



The Parable of: The Rich Man & Lazarus
A Different Lazarus but a Greater Miracle!

The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is found only in the gospel according to Luke (16:19-31) and is the clearest picture anywhere in Scripture of the afterlife.

Actually the concept of life after death originates in Judaism. Job was the earliest to mention it (Job 19:25-27), but David, Isaiah, Daniel and others also wrote about the life that comes after death as a reward for righteousness. Daniel was the first to clarify that the unrighteous will also rise from the grave, and it's from his explanation (Dan 12:2) that we've come to understand that everyone ever born lives forever. (Bodies are killed or wear out and expire but spirits, the repositories of life, are eternal.)

An angel explained to Daniel that while all rise from the grave, for some the 2nd life brings everlasting reward and for others everlasting shame and contempt. And in Revelation 20 we're told that for the unsaved, their return from the grave is for the purpose of judgment for their behavior while living. John wrote there about the 2nd death, actually a conscious state of eternal and solitary separation from God accompanied by never ending  torment, as the outcome of this judgment. Christians think of this as "hell" but as we'll learn from the Rich Man and Lazarus it's really much worse.


What's The Story?

Here's a summary of the story.

A rich man lived in the lap of luxury, while a beggar (Lazarus) languished outside his gate hoping for table scraps. In due time they both died. Angels carried Lazarus to "Abraham's side (bosom)" a popular Jewish term in that day for the abode of the dead, also called Paradise. Jesus promised one of the men being crucified with Him that they would meet there before the end of the day. The Hebrew name for this place is Sheol, while the Greeks called it Hades from which the English word Hell is derived. The rich man also went there upon dying, but while Lazarus was being comforted, the rich man was in constant torment. Asking Abraham for relief, he was informed that while they were within sight and speaking distance of each other, they were actually in two different areas and there was no way to cross from one to the other. (Luke 16:19-26)

The rich man then asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers, still alive, to change their opinion about the need for a savior (Read Repent and be Saved) so as to avoid coming there, but Abraham refused, saying, "They have Moses and the Prophets (the Bible), let them listen to them." "No", said the rich man, "But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent." Abraham responded, "If they will not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." (Luke 16:27-31)


What's The Point?

And there's the whole point of the story.
Three points actually:

The only place to secure your eternal destiny is here on earth before you die. The rich man never asked for a 2nd chance for himself, only that his brothers be warned while they were still living so they could avoid sharing his fate. Having experienced the alternative, there's no way he would have turned down an opportunity to join Abraham and Lazarus if one existed for him. Abraham made it clear that it was impossible to cross from either area to the other. The Bible contains all the facts you need to make an informed decision about eternity and is the Lord's chosen method for bringing His children to Salvation.

Grace Through Faith

Before the cross, those who had died in faith of a coming Savior as the Scriptures taught them went to a temporary place of comfort to rest until in the fullness of time their Redeemer's shed blood finally erased the penalty for their sins. This is the place called Abraham's bosom in the passage.

When Jesus came to Sheol after His death on the cross, he commended them for their faith (1 Ptr. 4:6) and took them to Heaven (Matt 27:52-53). His crucifixion had removed the final obstacle to their entry into God's presence. All who have died in faith since the cross go straight into the Lord's presence (2 Cor 5:7-8) where they await reunion with their resurrection bodies (1 Thes. 4:16). They are the only group of believers more anxious for the Rapture of the Church than we are (Romans 8:18-23).

The unsaved dead will continue to languish with the rich man until the end of the Millennium when they too are raised, judged, and then banished to a place of eternal torment, but this time in utter separation and darkness (Revelation 20:15).

Many in the liberal church, in cults, the New Age and in the Eastern religions speak of another chance to reconcile with God following physical death. Some even promote reincarnation into a series of lives through which people work their way toward perfection, eventually earning their place with God or even becoming a god. The Bible speaks of no such things, teaching instead that "man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment" (Hebr. 9:27). The Lord's own words in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus confirm this.


Trick Or Treat?

What a great trick of our enemy, persuading supposedly learned theologians to teach their biblically ignorant followers to ignore the clear admonitions of Scripture and seek an alternate way, only to discover after it's too late that they were misled. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. (Matt 7:13-14). In the context of these 2 verses all are seeking the path to salvation, but only a few find it. Most choose the complex over the simple, the wide over the small, the broad over the narrow.

Here's the simple, small and narrow truth.

God, Who created us, requires us to live by His law. Sin is the violation of God's law and the penalty is death. Because you sin you can't avoid the penalty, but because He loves you so much Jesus offered to die in your place. God agreed to this and has issued you a full pardon. You need only ask to be forgiven of all your sins, past present and future and receive your pardon. When you do your eternal destiny changes from torment to paradise, from separation to union, from death to life.

Period. End of Story.
Any Questions?
I thought not ...