Did Raising Lazarus Cause the Jews to Believe?

Tom:

We’re continuing with the gospel of John, we are presently in John:11:39Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
See All....Dave, again, our encouragement to our listeners out there who have never read the Bible, the first of the year is coming up and here’s something you can put on your list, start reading the scriptures.But if they are of that mind and we encourage it, I can’t tell you how much we encourage it, but if you have never done it before we recommend that you begin with the Gospel of John.We’re in chapter 11, picking up with verse 39.“Jesus said, Take ye away the stone.Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh:for he hath been dead four days.”

Dave:

We’re talking about Lazarus, of course, a dear friend of Christ, the brother of Martha and Mary and Jesus has said, “Okay, where did you bury him, come on let’s go to the grave.”They take him there and now he says, Roll the stone away, and they say, “Wait a minute, it stinks!”I mean it’s a hot climate and he had been dead four days, what are you up to?

Tom:

It was pretty outrageous for them to—although I’m sure they were hopeful.I know that Martha and Mary were hopeful.

Dave:

I think they had mixed feelings—Lord, can you really do this?We sure wish you could.

Tom:

Verse 40, “Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”Now Dave, is this all dependent on her faith? Did she need to believe here?

Dave:

Well Tom, the Bible on the one hand gives promises for our faith, according to your faith be it unto you.On the other hand, we have a number of examples.One of the most striking examples is that prayer meeting for Peter, remember?

Tom:

Absolutely.

Dave:

And Peter is in prison and they are praying for him to be released and yet here he comes, the angel let him out and he is knocking on the door and Rhoda comes to the door, she is so excited she knows it’s Peter and she doesn’t open the door.She runs to tell them, “It’s Peter!It’s Peter!”These are the faithful people who are praying in faith and they say, It can’t be, it must be a spirit!So, it certainly was not their faith that got Peter out of prison and it’s not going to be the faith of Martha and Mary that raises Lazarus from the dead.Jesus is going to command it.He loves to honor our faith but he doesn’t have to wait for our faith, there are things that he is going to do and he is going to do them whether we believe it or not.Like the Rapture—remember I said it last week and others have said it—anybody who doesn’t believe in the Rapture, we’ll explain it to you on the way up, but you will be raptured whether you believe it or not, if you believe in Christ as your Savior.

Tom:

Verse 41, “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid.And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.”“And I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.”So there was a purpose for raising Lazarus.

Dave:

Yeah, and also I think a purpose for him talking to his Father.He says, “I have come in my Father’s name”—that was back in chapter 5—“you received me not.Another will come in his own name—that’s the Antichrist—him you will receive.”And Jesus says, “I don’t do anything independent of the Father.”And so he’s not just coming here and going to command Lazarus but he is talking to the Father, giving credit to the Father as the one who is in charge, whose orders he follows.I think that’s the major reason why he is speaking as he is.

Tom:

“And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’” He spoke the word and what happened!

Dave:

Somebody has suggested if he didn’t say, Lazarus, the whole cemetery would have emptied.Well, it would depend upon his intention, he didn’t have to say, Lazarus, but he did say, Lazarus, for the benefit of those who were listening, who were there.

Tom
“And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes:and his face was bound about with a napkin.Jesus saith unto them, loose him, and let him go.”

Dave:

That must have been something to see, Tom.Here’s a man who is bound hand and foot, I mean, he can’t move his feet, but up he gets and something is pulling him out.Here he comes.Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth” and here comes Lazarus, although he can’t walk.Even that part of it is miraculous, supernatural.And then Jesus says, “Loose him, and let him go.”Now he could have loosed him but he wants them to do a little something.Even miraculous events very often we are required to do our part.

Tom:

“Then many of the Jews which came to Mary,—(now Mary was a Jew, Martha was a Jew, Lazarus was a Jew, so I’m sure this is referring to the religious here)—which came to Mary and had seen and had seen these things which Jesus did, believed on him.”Did they become true believers in Christ?

Dave:

That’s problematic.They may have believed he was the Messiah, but whether they understood that the Messiah would die for their sins, I don’t know.But we have two other instances, we’ve just been over them in John 2 where it says when he was in Jerusalem the feast day, many of the Jews seeing the miracles that he did, believed in his name and Jesus didn’t commit himself to them.And then John 6, “As he spake these things, many believed on him.”Then he says to them, “You continue in my word…” and so forth, then they began to argue with him and eventually they take up stones to stone him.So, here were Jews that it says believed in his name. He did not commit himself to them.He knew their hearts were not right.And then there were Jews who, it says, believed in him and their hearts are not right.So the condition of the hearts of these people that believe on Christ because of this miracle, I don’t know, it doesn’t tell us.We’ve already had two examples of where it doesn’t necessarily mean they understand that he is the one who came to die for the sins of the world.

Tom:

Dave, why don’t you read the next verses, I’m all out of verses.

Dave:

The next verse is just astonishing.“But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.”Now these are eyewitnesses, they have seen a man who was in the grave 4 days, he stinks, or he stunk until Jesus called him forth, he comes forth bound hand and foot.This is an incredible miracle!They have witnessed this!They don’t believe on Jesus.

Tom:

This isn’t somebody that they thought, oh he just passed out, or he just maybe he was in a slight coma or whatever.

Dave:

There is no question that this is a miracle.A miracle, this is incredible!It doesn’t change their hearts and they are so loyal to the Pharisees that they go and they tell the Pharisees what Jesus did.Now the Pharisees know what Jesus did.For example, going back to John 3, when Nicodemus came to Jesus by night it says, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God.”He didn’t say, “I know.”He’s one of the Pharisees.“We know you are a teacher come from God, for no man can do the miracles that you do except God be with him.”Now they know this, and here is the most incredible miracle of all and what happens?“Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, “What do we? For this man doeth many miracles.”They acknowledged the miracles.Does that cause them to believe in him?“If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him:and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” Ahh, guys, you’re going to lose your popularity, and you’re going to lose your power over the Jews.

Tom:

Dave, there are times people think these kinds of things.You don’t articulate them.To me, that raises us to another level of—I can’t even describe it!

Dave:

The selfishness, the evil in the hearts of these men!Now these were the leaders, the religious leaders of the Jews.That’s why it says a feast of the Jews, this was their religion.And you remember what Jesus said to them in Matthew 23, and we’ve gone over that many times.He called them scoundrels and so forth, he said, “Not only don’t you enter into heaven but you prevent those who would and you set up a system of your rules.You make people come to God through you, they’ve got to follow your rules to get to God, and they are at your mercy.”And you see it right here.The people are at the mercy of these men.And the ones who went to tell them about this, they are apparently getting some favors, or they have some favored position that derives from the power that the rabbis have and they are thinking of themselves, they are not thinking of others and they are not interested in truth.They are interested in maintaining their own position and Tom, tragically, I think there are many pastors that are in that position as well, building a kingdom, not interested in telling the truth, but wanting to build popularity and build a kingdom and one day they will face the Lord in judgment because of that.

Tom:

And it will be more severe than those who have not had the knowledge that they have had.They’re not blind, I mean, they are blind in one way, but they’ve had the scriptures.

Dave:

There is no excuse.