Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00016A
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00:20 Hello and welcome to this program
00:21 called "Books of the Book." 00:23 We're so happy that you are able to join us 00:25 and-- in this Bible study. 00:27 My name is Deyvy Rodriguez. 00:29 And we are studying today the Gospel of John 00:32 and in particular today we are in chapter 11. 00:35 And we're gonna talk about the resurrection of Lazarus. 00:39 And with us in this study is Dr. Jon Pauline, 00:42 he is a Bible scholar 00:43 and he comes from Loma Linda University 00:46 in Loma Linda, California. 00:48 And we want to thank you again, 00:50 Dr. Pauline, for being with us. 00:51 We're so happy, we are so delighted 00:53 that you are able to share your insights in this Gospel. 00:57 And you shared with us early in another program 01:00 that you love this gospel, this book 01:04 because you said it's a spiritual 01:06 and in so many spiritual applications. 01:09 And you also mentioned a favorite verse in this gospel 01:13 which is chapter 3 and verse 20-- Verse 8. 01:18 Verse 8, which tells again what is it saying, 01:21 why is it important to you? 01:22 The wind blows wherever it wants to, 01:25 no one knows where it's coming from or where it's going. 01:28 So is everyone who is born in the spirit. 01:32 And it encourages us to-- 01:33 when the spirit comes into our lives, 01:35 we don't become cookie cutter people, 01:38 rather we become uniquely who God intended us to be 01:41 and that for me is so exciting. Amen. 01:44 Well, now if you are-- if you do have a Bible with you 01:47 and you want to join us in this Bible study again, 01:50 we are in chapter 11 and thus far 01:54 we have been studying, 01:56 the life of Jesus in this gospel. 01:59 And we've learned, Dr. Pauline, that Jesus is define-- 02:03 the leaders of the church. 02:06 We've learned in chapter 2 that He disrupts worship. 02:09 Chapter 5, He heals in the Sabbath. 02:12 Again disrupts worship in chapter 7. 02:14 He is accused of blasphemy for calling or-- 02:18 for placing Himself as God. 02:21 Chapter 9, He is healing on the Sabbath one more time 02:25 and chapter 10, blasphemy again. 02:29 Now we are in chapter 11. 02:31 So tell us what is the context here 02:34 and what are we now? 02:36 What is now Jesus gonna do to defy the leaders 02:39 and to make them upset? 02:41 There's been conflict all along there, 02:43 all six of those as you point out. 02:46 And I don't know if this is intentional or not. 02:49 But it's fascinating that the first and third encounters 02:54 with the religious leaders are in relation to a worship service 02:59 that gets disrupted by Jesus' presence. 03:02 The fourth and sixth of these are accusations of blasphemy. 03:06 And the second and fifth are relating to the Sabbath, 03:12 accusations relating to the Sabbath. 03:14 So it's like you've two sets of three 03:17 in which an incident related to the Sabbath 03:20 is between a couple of other incidents. 03:23 So I find that interesting. 03:26 Really with chapter 11, 03:28 this is therefore the last straw. 03:31 In other words the raising of Lazarus is the final thing 03:35 and from that moment on people are saying, 03:38 okay, we've had enough of Jesus, we got to get rid of Him. 03:41 So right after the Lazarus story, 03:44 you have the story of the Sanhedrin 03:47 coming together to the side what to do with Jesus. 03:50 If we let Him go on like this, everybody's gonna follow Him 03:54 and the Romans are gonna come 03:55 and destroy our temple and our city and everything. 03:58 So we got to do something. 03:59 So raising of Lazarus becomes the final provocation, 04:05 not what you would think, 04:07 you know, was intentional by Jesus. 04:08 I mean, He simply raising a friend. 04:11 But the fact that He could raise the dead like this, 04:16 it just brings to an end, I think the opposition 04:21 which has been trying to resist the idea 04:23 that He is Messiah and even God. 04:26 But when He raises the dead, it's gonna like, 04:28 okay, now what do we do that this is going too far. 04:32 Now-- so now we are in what, 04:36 the chapter says Bethany-- Right. 04:39 This is the place where He has friends-- 04:42 Bethany is a small village 04:44 on the other side of the Mount of Olives. 04:46 So it's very close to Jerusalem, 04:48 two or three kilometers from Jerusalem. 04:52 And it's a place that Jesus when He was in Jerusalem 04:55 would often spend the night there. 04:57 So He was there with friends. 05:00 Something I should mention 05:03 that the Rabbis at the time had a teaching 05:07 that when a person dies the soul of that person, 05:12 not all the Rabbis really understood 05:14 the biblical perspective on human nature 05:17 which is that body and soul are one. 05:19 You know, that we're complete unity. 05:21 That's very clear in the Old Testament 05:23 but some Jews after the time of the Old Testament 05:27 began to read Plato and Philo 05:30 and some of these Greek philosophers 05:32 and come up with this idea of a division 05:34 between soul and body. So that's being reflected here. 05:38 But those who believe that way thought that when a person died, 05:41 the soul would kind of hover over the body for three days. 05:46 And if the person didn't comeback to life, 05:48 it would then, you know, just go off to God 05:53 or wherever they thought it might be. 05:55 So the point here is that after three days 05:59 they believed there's no more hope. 06:02 Now you'll notice that Jesus delays 06:06 a couple of days before He comes. 06:08 The sister sends a-- you know, your friend is sick. 06:12 And instead of coming, Jesus spends two more days there 06:15 and then comes, and He arrives on the fourth day. 06:19 And what does He say when He arrives? 06:22 We are in verse-- 06:23 Yeah, I think it's verse 15, you've read it to me before. 06:26 Okay. I'm glad-- 06:27 "I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, 06:29 that you may believe. 06:31 Nevertheless let us go to him." 06:33 Now this sounds bit disrespectful, 06:36 bit rude for Jesus to say 06:39 "I am glad that I was not there" 06:41 you know, so His-- His good friend has died, 06:45 His two sisters are mourning and Jesus is glad. Yeah. 06:50 What's with that comment there? Yeah. 06:52 Well, it appears, I think if you go back to chapter 7 06:57 you realize that Jesus' timetable is not set by friends, 07:02 by mother, by brothers, by anybody. 07:06 Jesus schedule is set by His Father. 07:10 And so Jesus delays two days 07:13 not out of disrespect for Lazarus 07:15 but because he does not sense 07:17 the Father wants Him to go just yet. 07:19 He apparently is not aware that Lazarus had died 07:23 when He actually comes but He is glad that He delayed, 07:29 because now the glory of God can be seen. 07:31 And so He arrives four days in, 07:34 raising Lazarus at the four day period is an undeniable miracle. 07:39 Nobody's gonna doubt it, this is indisputable. 07:44 And so the delay ends up 07:46 showing of the glory of God as we see in verse 4. 07:50 "Now the disciple seem to be confused for what Jesus said. 07:55 And earlier He said that our friend Lazarus is sleeping. 08:01 And so I-- I go so that I can wake him up. 08:05 And so verse 16 says, 08:07 "Then Thomas, who was called the Twin, 08:09 said to his fellow disciples, 08:10 'Let us go, also that we may die with him.'" 08:13 That's after Jesus said, Lazarus is dead. 08:16 Now I don't know what Thomas means by that to say 08:20 Okay, let's go with Jesus that we may die with Him. 08:23 I think he is reflecting back on those six encounters 08:28 with religious leaders that the gospel has been 08:31 full of your time after time after time. 08:33 Jesus has been in contention with them. 08:37 And the last couple of times, they pick up stones. 08:40 So when he says let us go that we may die with Him, 08:43 referring-- with Him Jesus, 08:45 or with him who is already dead, Lazarus. No. 08:49 I think he's saying there with Jesus, 08:50 that Jesus is gonna die if He goes back to Jerusalem. 08:53 Remember they are by the Jordan because of the encounter. 08:59 When he was last in the temple on the Feast of Dedication 09:02 He says, "I and the Father are one." 09:04 And they pick up stones to stone Him. 09:06 This is the second time. 09:08 So disciple are saying, don't go back to the temple. 09:12 Every time you go, they are ready to beat you up, 09:14 you know? Don't go there. 09:17 So Jesus takes His disciples at the end of chapter 10, 09:20 they go out in to this quite place 09:23 and disciples are glad that, 09:25 you know, things are little better. 09:27 But now, Jesus wants to go back 09:29 in to the lion's den and Thomas says, 09:30 alright, let just go with Him and to die with Him. 09:32 And apparently they are ready to die for Him at least, 09:34 Thomas--at least they say they are ready to die. 09:37 This is doubting Thomas. This is doubting Thomas. 09:38 You see, that's absolutely, 09:40 He's not really doubting Thomas, see. 09:42 He was put in an unusual situation. 09:45 When he was doubting and it turns out in chapter 20 09:50 that God was able to use that situation 09:54 to set the tone for the entire gospel, 09:56 which I think is powerful. 09:58 The real doubter in Gospel of John is Phillip. 10:03 He is the one that constantly questioning 10:04 and--do we have enough bread to feed all these people? 10:06 You know, hey Lord, you said, we've seen the Father, 10:10 come on, I've never seen the Father, you know. 10:12 So Phillip's the one that's kind of-- 10:14 So doubting Phillip would be more appropriate. 10:15 Yeah. Perhaps. In this case. 10:17 But I guess Thomas did the more spectacular crime, you know. 10:22 He is the person with the really spectacular crime 10:24 that's remembered I think, 10:25 and that's where Thomas gets it. 10:27 But he-- in this case is the one 10:29 who really express his courage. 10:32 Now go back to this idea 10:34 of Jesus saying that Lazarus sleeps. 10:38 Why did Jesus say that Lazarus is sleeping 10:41 and later He says that he is dead? 10:44 Well, sleeping was a way of saying 10:47 that a person is dead in the ancient world. 10:51 You know, when the person is dead 10:52 and kind of like this, looks like 10:54 they are taking a nap that sort of-- 10:56 so this is widely, you know, in the Greek world 10:58 and the Jewish world and so on. 11:02 But I think it's an excellent reference to death 11:06 because as we see with Lazarus, 11:08 the death that we suffer in this life 11:11 is not the ultimate death. It's like a sleep. 11:15 It's a diminishment of death when Christians use this term 11:20 because the death that really matters 11:22 is eternal separation from God 11:25 or what Revelation calls the second death. 11:29 So here when He says, Lazarus is asleep, 11:31 it's one of those misunderstandings, 11:34 you know, Jesus is saying 11:36 he is asleep, they take him literally. 11:39 Oh, well good, he's gonna get better. 11:41 But no, Jesus is saying he has died in the final sense 11:45 that human beings experience in this life. 11:48 But the resurrection of Lazarus 11:50 proves that the death as we experience 11:53 it is not the ultimate thing. 11:54 It's not the thing to be most feared 11:57 and people live their lives in consciousness of death, 12:02 in almost fear of death. 12:04 And one of the beauties of Christian faith 12:05 is it takes away the fear of death. 12:08 Because really we know that's not the ultimate thing. 12:10 With the resurrection of Jesus, 12:13 something better is coming for all of us. 12:16 So it takes away some of the fear of death. 12:21 But just summarizing this chapter as a whole-- 12:25 it goes through the story and people can read it, 12:29 Jesus greets the sisters again. 12:30 We've have more to say about that after the break. 12:33 But then He goes and He raises Lazarus from the dead. 12:37 And as I said, that's the last straw, 12:39 raising Lazarus from the dead. 12:40 And the next thing that happens, 12:42 you know, the council 12:43 and the council is trying to kill Jesus. 12:47 So here is the thing, 12:49 the raising of Lazarus is the seventh action of Jesus 12:54 that creates hostility. 12:56 And as a result of the raising of Lazarus 12:59 three things happened. 13:00 Mary has increased faith. 13:03 When she sees Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, 13:06 her faith comes up to its fullness. 13:10 On the other hand, the raising of Lazarus 13:13 creates hostility in the Sanhedrin 13:17 and even for Judas. 13:18 It seems that Judas starts turning his head 13:21 to betraying Jesus after this. 13:23 Why exactly would not be clear? 13:26 But more than this, it creates a lot of inadequate faith. 13:30 Remember the three types of faith? 13:33 The inadequate faith is the kind that gets excited by miracles. 13:37 And a huge crowd goes into Jerusalem saying, 13:40 Jesus raised the dead. 13:42 And when Jesus rides into Jerusalem the next day, 13:45 huge crowd is waiting for them. 13:47 Are they true believers? No. 13:49 They were excited about another miracle. 13:51 So the death of Lazarus creates hostility, 13:54 genuine faith and inadequate faith. 13:57 All three of those in chapters 11 and 12. 14:00 Okay, well, we're gonna continue on this story of Lazarus 14:04 after this short break, so stay with us. |
Revised 2014-12-17