The Raising of Lazarus and the Consequences - by Jeff Byerley

The Study - John 11.38-57 - The Raising of Lazarus and the Consequences.

11:38-44 Jesus Raises Lazarus.

Jesus had deliberately waited until Lazarus' body had begun to putrefy.
There was no question that he was truly dead.
Jesus prayed giving thanks publicly that God always heard him.
A key phrase in 11:42 is "that they may believe that thou didst send me.”
And we marvelled that Jesus simply commands Lazarus to come out.
We noted that John refers to the "signs" (v.47) that Jesus did, rather than "miracles".
Like Mark's Gospel, John's spends the first half establishing who Jesus is.
The second half refers to Jesus work on the cross.

11:45-57 The Plotting of Jesus' Death

The raising of Lazarus forced the Pharisees & Chief Priests into action.
They feared Jesus would gain such a following that the Romans would brutally intercede.
But they feared really for their own comfortable lifestyle, power and position.
Unwittingly the chief priest prophesies Jesus's death would be for the benefit of all God's people.
God provided for this in Numbers 27:18-21 whenever the chief priest spoke on the fate of His people.
We observed that Jesus kept safe in the mountainous Ephraim, north of Jerusalem.
He was not reckless with his life but rather would lay it down at the appointed time.
This made us think about how we spend our time and energies.