Introduction: The Christian hope is that Jesus gives life, founded on the fact that Jesus was raised, and he will raise us too!
John 11:17
Bethany was about (1.72) miles from Jerusalem.
Lazarus had been dead for days when Jesus arrived.
In Rabbinic thought, the soul would hover around the body after death for days, but as soon as the body started to “change,” the soul would (the fourth day), and death was .
The point here is that there was a to things after four days.
The fact that a lot of people were coming to Mary and Martha also means that a number of people witnessed the .
Mary and Martha are very different, and Martha is often looked at as the woman we be like.
We must not forget that is a spiritual gift!
John 11:21
Martha’s statement shouldn’t be seen as a
Martha’s statement should be seen as flowing from a frustrated heart overwhelmed by
Barclay: Martha’s heart spoke through her
Question for later: Is it wrong to speak frankly to God?
1 Peter 5:7
What does affliction do in the life of a Christian? It pushes us to
Richard Phillips: “As believers, their broken hearts reach out to the Lord, but their grieving minds grope in shadows.”
In grief, Christians lose hold of they ought to know of God.
Our perfect father the grieving heart.
Question for later: Why are the ordinary means of grace so crucial in the life of the believer?
God uses the proclamation of His word to grow you, shape you, equip you, and prepare you!
Martha’s twofold error:
A. She assumed that Jesus had to be present to heal her brother
B. Martha assumed that the of God was to her brother
Theology has , and bad theology has bad consequences!
Until Jesus returns, it is the of God that each of us dies, and the suffering that accompanies it is a result of the curse of sin brought into humanity by our first parents.
Faith has an : Jesus Christ!
John 11:21
D.A. Carson: “Even now, in her bereavement, she has not lost her confidence in Jesus, and still recognizes the peculiar intimacy he enjoys with His Father, and intimacy that ensures unprecedented fruitfulness to his prayer.”
John 11:23 — Martha needed some good , and she needed to be reminded of what she already knew to be true!
Mark Johnson: “the immediacy and seeming finality of death are such that comfort of a unique order is needed to begin to banish its shadow.”
J.C. Ryle: “Jesus tells Martha that He is not merely a human teacher of the resurrection, but the Divine Author of all resurrection, spiritual or physical, and the root and fountain of all life.”
Jesus’ words in John 11:25-26 refer to not only physical resurrection and the resurrection at the end of history but also .
B.B. Warfield: “’I am the resurrection and the life’ — Whatever death is, and all that death is…that is what we shall be saved from in this salvation. And whatever life is, that all that life is…that is what we shall be saved to in this salvation.”