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MINISTRY 4
JESUS RAISES LAZARUS (John 11:1 44)
Bethany Now there was this certain man named Lazarus
who was ill. He was from Bethany, the same village as Mary and her sister Martha. Now
this was the same Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped off his feet
with her hair, and the ailing Lazarus was her brother. So the sisters sent a message
to Jesus, "Lord, the one that you love is ill." Now when Jesus heard this, he said,
"This illness will not lead to death, but to the glorification of God; that the Son
of God might be exalted thereby." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus too.
So when he heard about his condition, Jesus stayed where he was for two days. "Let us
return to Judea," he said to his students. "Rabbi," the disciples questioned him, "the
Jews have just now tried to stone you, and are you going back again?" "Are there not
twelve hours in a day?" Jesus replied. "If anyone should walk in daylight, he will not
stumble, because he can see by the light of this world. If, however, someone should walk
at night, then he will indeed slip up, for there is no light in him." After saying this
to them, he explained, "Our friend Lazarus has only fallen asleep; but I am going there
to wake him up." So his followers said to him, "Sir, if he is sleeping, then he will
get well." Now Jesus meant that he had died, but the disciples imagined that he was talking
about some kind of restful slumber. So at that point Jesus came out and said, "Lazarus
is dead, but for your sakes I am glad that I was not there, so that you might come to
believe. Even so, let us all now go to him." At this, Thomas, who is also known as Didymus,
said to the other disciples, "Let us all go with him as well, that we might all die alongside
him." So Jesus came and found that Lazarus had already been entombed for four days.
Now Bethany was only about fifteen stadia away from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come
to Martha and Mary to comfort them on the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that
Jesus would soon be there, she went out to meet him, while Mary sat at home. "Lord,"
said Martha, "my brother would never have passed on had you been here. But I know that
even now, God will give you whatever you might ask of Him." "Your brother will be raised
again," Jesus said. "I know," Martha answered. "He will rise again in the resurrection on
the last day." Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and I am life. Anyone who trusts in me, even
though he passes on, he will indeed live. And everyone who is alive and has faith in
me will never, ever die. Do you believe this?" "I do, my Lord," she answered him, "I believe
that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who is coming into the world." And after she had
said all this, she returned and summoned Mary, and said to her privately, "The Teacher is
here, and he’s asking for you." When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and
went over to where Jesus was. Now Jesus had not yet entered into the village, but was
still waiting there where Martha had met him. The Jews who had been with her in her house,
consoling her, when they saw how Mary had sprung up and hurried out, said, "She is going
to weep at the tomb," so they followed after her. So when Mary got to the place where Jesus
was and saw him there, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, my brother would never have
died if you had been here." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her
also weeping, he was deeply stirred within his spirit, and he grew troubled. Then he
asked them, "Where have you laid him?" "Lord," they replied, "come and see." Jesus wept.
So the Jews there said, "Look at how deep his love for Lazarus was!" But some of them
sneered, "Could not this one who opened up the eyes of the blind man also have kept this
man from dying?" So Jesus, once again deeply moved, arrived at the tomb. It was a cave
with a stone lying across it. "Remove the stone," he said to them. And Martha, the sister
of the deceased, protested, "Lord, the stench of death is on him now, for he has been dead
for four days!" "Did I not already say to you," Jesus reminded her, "that if you were
to believe, you would see the glory of God?" Then they removed the stone where the dead
man lie. And Jesus looked to the sky and said, "Father, I thank You for hearing me. I know
very well that You always do, but I said it for the sake of those standing here, that
they might believe that You have sent me." And after he had spoken this, he shouted in
a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" And the one who had died came out, his grave clothes
still bound around his hands and feet, and a cloth, still wrapped around his face. And
Jesus said, "Unbind him now and let him go." THE PHARISEES CONSPIRE TO EXECUTE JESUS
(John 11:45 54) Jerusalem; Ephraim
Many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus had done came to put their faith
in him. Some of them, however, went to the Pharisees and let them know what he was doing.
The high-ranking priests and the Pharisees therefore called a meeting of the Sanhedrin
and asked, "What are we supposed to do, seeing that he does so many signs? Were we to let
him go on like this, everyone would come to believe in him, and the Romans would come
and do away with our temple and our nation." And one of them--that year’s high priest,
whose name was Caiaphas--questioned them, "Do you understand nothing at all? Can you
not see that it is better for one man to die for the sake of the people, than for the entire
nation to perish?" Now it was not on his own that he said this to them, but as that year’s
high priest, he was prophesying that Jesus was soon to die for the sake of the nation.
And not just for that nation alone, but to bind together all of God’s children who
are scattered far and wide, and make them all one. So they plotted his death from that
day on. Jesus therefore no longer walked freely among the Jews, but left that place for a
town called Ephraim, which was near to the desert, and he stayed with his disciples there.
THE GRATEFUL *** (Luke 17:11 19)
Galilee or Samaria He was traveling between Galilee and Samaria
on his way through to Jerusalem. There he entered into a certain village where there
met him ten lepers who were standing off in the distance and shouting, "Jesus, Master,
show us some compassion!" And when he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves
to the priests." And even as they went their way, all of them received their cleansing.
And one of them, when he realized that he’d been cured, returned praising God loudly.
And he fell to his face at Jesus’ feet and gave him thanks--and this man was a Samaritan.
"Were there not ten who were cleansed?" Jesus marveled. "Where then are the other nine?
Were there none found besides this foreigner who would come back and praise God?" Then
he said to him, "Rise up now and go your way, for your faith has made you whole."