John 11 Round Two: Jesus IS the Resurrection and Life

A sealed tomb, a grieving family, and a risky return to Judea—John 11 doesn’t just tell a miracle story, it confronts how we think about time, hope, and the power behind the word resurrection. We walk through the chapter line by line and watch Jesus turn a late arrival into a living revelation: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Martha meets us first with clarity and courage. She believes Jesus could have prevented death and still leans forward in trust. We unpack why Jesus waited two extra days, how that timing dismantled a local superstition about three days after death, and what it reveals about God’s purpose in delay. Then Mary arrives in tears, and we pause where the text pauses: Jesus wept. Real empathy and real authority coexist as he stands before the stone, prays for the crowd’s sake, and calls into the darkness, “Lazarus, come out.” We explain the burial customs, the grave clothes, and the freeing command, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

Not everyone celebrates. Some believe, others report, and the high council plots to end the movement to “save” the nation from Rome. We highlight the sharp irony and the unintentional prophecy from Caiaphas that one man would die for the people—a line that points straight to the cross. Through it all, one theme holds the center: resurrection is not a date on the calendar but a Person who brings dead places back to life. If he can call a man out four days late by human reckoning, he can meet you in your delay, your grief, and your impossible. 

Listen for practical reflection prompts, a fresh look at faith and lament, and a clear invitation to trust Jesus with the stones that still feel too heavy to move. If this episode encourages you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s the greatest miracle you’ve seen?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For John 11
• 1:04 Community, Reviews, And A Big Question
• 2:18 Lazarus Falls Ill And Jesus Waits
• 3:22 Walking Back To Judea Despite Danger
• 4:20 Martha’s Faith And Jesus’ Identity
• 6:13 Mary Weeps And Jesus Weeps
• 7:05 Four Days Dead And The Stone
• 8:04 Lazarus Come Out
• 8:50 Belief, Backlash, And Plot To Kill
• 10:45 Passover Nears And A Call To Believe

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Well, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, John chapter 11. And I'm gonna go ahead and tell you, I know I say this every time, but this is a good one. Oh my goodness, this is a good one. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be The Resurrection is a Person. Let me say it this way: the resurrection is not an event, the resurrection is a person, and his name is Jesus. This is the one. This is the chapter. Most likely, this was the high point of Jesus' earthly ministry. This moment right here just blew everybody's mind. And we're gonna get to it in just a moment. It's one of the most famous things that Jesus did as far as his earthly ministry, and we're gonna talk about it. Include maybe a couple things you didn't know that blew my mind when I found out. All right, but before we do that, as always, man, I'm about to start gushing like crazy. I'm so excited about God's word and especially this chapter today. But before that, if you like what we're doing, make sure you like this video. You subscribe to this channel. I saw where it's like 60% of people who watch these videos on YouTube are not subscribed. Like 80% of people have not left us a review. So make sure you're doing all those things. It really does help us get out the word as we're trying to build a spiritual community of people that's just rallying around God's word and just understanding the principles of God's word one day at a time and living accordingly. So I want you to go on our Facebook group at Bible Discussion. Excuse me, Bible Breakdown Discussion. Let's just talk about what's going on. And I want to ask this question. Here we go. What is the biggest miracle? What is the greatest miracle you've seen? Now, everybody who's who's experienced salvation, that is the greatest miracle. If you've ever seen someone get saved, that is the greatest miracle. Other than salvation, what is the greatest miracle you've ever seen? I've experienced miracles in my life. I was healed of a broken ankle one time. I've been healed of many things in my life. And I've, my, my stepmother, she was healed of a pinched nerve in her back. I mean, just I've seen so, or I think it was her neck, actually. I've seen so many different miracles in my life. I want to know on the Bible breakdown discussion, what is the greatest miracle you've ever seen? Because today we're gonna see one. It's amazing, it's awesome. And I want to say again the resurrection is not an event, the resurrection is a person, and his name is Jesus. We're gonna be talking about Lazarus, the man who died and then the Lord brought back to life. It's gonna be awesome, it's gonna be amazing. Let's just jump in and read it. So if you got your NLT Bibles open to John chapter 11, we're gonna start with verse number one. Here we go. John chapter 11, verse one. A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, Lord, your dear friend is very sick. Now pause. Now, likely what a lot of historians think is many times Lazarus was probably a friend of Jesus, and Lazarus would probably have Jesus staying with them whenever he was in town. And so they would have gotten to know Jesus over time. Verse 4, but when Jesus heard about it, he said, Lazarus' sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God, so that the Son of God will receive glory from this. So although Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, he stayed there for the next two days. Finally, he said to his disciples, Let's go back to Judea. But his disciples objected, Rabbi, they said, Only a few days ago people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again? Jesus replied, There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light. Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up. Then the disciples said, Well, Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better. They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but jazz but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he said to them plainly, Look, Lazarus is in the dead. And for your sakes, I'm glad I wasn't there. For now you can really believe. Come, let's go to him. Thomas, nicknamed the twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let's go, and we can just die with Jesus. Lazarus just, I don't, I don't know. The Bible doesn't give context. I don't know if he's being like courageous, let us go die with him. Or if he's being slightly passive aggressive, oh, let's go and die with Jesus. Either way, they about to see something amazing. So when Jesus arrived at Bethany, he told, uh, he was told that Lazarus uh was had already been in the grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem. Many of the people had come to console Mary and Martha in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had only been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask. Jesus told her, Your brother will rise again. Yes, Martha said, He will rise when everyone else rises at the last day. I love this. Listen, Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes will never die. Do you believe this, Martha? Now pause. Once again, remember the resurrection is not an event, the resurrection is a person, and his name is Jesus. He gives life to whomever he will. And what he's saying here is that if you believe in him, not just that you believe he exists, but you put your faith and your trust in him, no matter what you may do on this earth, you live eternally with him in heaven. Verse 27, Jesus said, or Martha said, Yes, Lord, she told him, I have always believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God. And then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told him, The teacher is here and he wants to see you. So Mary immediately went to him. Jesus had stayed outside the village at a place where Martha met him, and when the people who were who were at the house consulting Mary saw her leaving so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus' grave to weep, so they followed her there. But when Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you had only been here, my brother would not have died. And when Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing, and deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. Where have you put him? he asked them. They told him, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. And the people who were standing nearby said, See how much he loved him. But they but some said, This man healed a blind man. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying? Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb. A cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. Roll the stone aside, Jesus told them. But Martha, dead man's sister, protested, Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible. Now pause for a second. First of all, her answer is, yeah. After four days, he's gonna stink. But here's something that's really interesting. According to history, there was this superstition at the time that said that when someone would die, they the spirit of the dead person would kind of hover around the dead body for three days. And after three days, that spirit would then depart. And so many times after you would have a body that would die, you would kind of hang around a little bit just in case that person's spirit decided to come on back in again. Now, it was a superstition and it wasn't true, but there was this thought process behind it of it could be true and it might be true. And so there was this idea that if Jesus had just come earlier, then maybe he could have healed Lazarus. But now that he is dead four days, he is dead one day longer than the holding pattern of the superstition. And what I love about Jesus is he waited until only a miracle would do. I love the idea that according to the superstition of the time, it might have been understood that if Lazarus had been dead for a day, then it'd be, well, you know, his spirit was already around. So could Jesus have done the miracle or did just the spirit decide to come back in? If it had been three days, it could have been, well, you know, but Jesus waited until even by local legend, Lazarus was like dead, dead, like for real dead, like fully dead for all of my, you know, uh for all of my uh princess bride listeners, you know, you know, he's fully dead. And at that moment is when Jesus said, now is the right time, because I'm gonna set things up in such a way that only a miracle would do. So here we go. Jesus responded in verse 40, didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe? So they rolled the stone aside, and Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me. And then Jesus shouted, Lazarus, come out. And the dead man came out with his hands and feet bound and graves closed, and his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, Unwrap him and let him go. What an amazing picture. Lazarus is wrapped up, and what they would do when you would die, is they would wrap you up super, super tight. Now, this is gross, but they would wrap you up super, super tight because the body, since it hadn't been embalmed like it is nowadays, and in the very dry climate of the Middle East, the body would decay very quickly. The body would dry out all of the liquids and things would evaporate and all that. And so then pretty quickly, probably with about a year, a lot of times what you'd have left would be the bones. And you'd have some other things. I don't want to get too gross, but you'd have many of the bones. And so what they would do is they'd they'd tie it up really, really tight so that as your body started to decay, it wouldn't spread out everywhere, but it would still stay pretty close. And so Lazarus is completely bound up. And so he's hopping around, and they have to loose him so they can let him go. This amazing, amazing miracle. But then look at this. Verse 45 says, Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. But some of the Pharisees, uh, but they went to some Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. And the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. Listen to this. What are we going to do? They asked each other. The man certainly performs miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy our temple and our nation. Caiaphas, who was the high priest at the time, said, You don't know what you're talking about. You don't realize it is better for that one man should die than for the people of the whole nation to be destroyed. He did not say this for his own, but as high priest at the time, he was led to prophesy that Jesus would die for the entire nation. And not only for the nation, but to bring together and unite all the children of God scattered around the world. Praise the Lord. Verse 53. So from now, from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus' death. As a result, Jesus stopped his public ministry among the people and left Jerusalem. He went to the place near the wilderness, to the village of Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples. It was now almost time for the Jewish Passover celebration. And many people from all over the country arrived in Jerusalem several days early so they could go through the purification ceremony before the Passover began. They kept looking for Jesus, but they stood around in the temple and they said to each other, What do you think? Won't he come to the Passover? He won't come to the Passover, will he? Meanwhile, the leading priests and Pharisees had publicly ordered that anyone seeing Jesus must report it immediately so they could arrest him. So, as you can see, it's getting time. The high priest, the Pharisees have realized Jesus is too dangerous to keep around. Why? Get this because he keeps healing folks, because he keeps rising people from the dead. But if you see the reason why is they don't care that much about the people, they don't want the Romans to see. Because the Romans, they already know. We talked about this yesterday because of the the Maccabees and different things. They already know that these Jewish people are stubborn and they like a good fight. And so they are always looking to try to keep the nation of Israel down and stop them from getting rambunctious because there's been a lot of revolts over the past 400 years by these Jewish people. And so now the Pharisees are worried that if Jesus gets too powerful, they're going to come in and destroy them. But what they don't realize is they're not dealing with a man, they're dealing with someone who is the resurrection and the life. And I love this idea that the resurrection is not an event, the resurrection is a person, and his name is Jesus. And if Jesus can raise the dead, there is nothing he can't do in your life. Let's pray, and we'll be done for today. Father, thank you so much that you sent your son to this earth. Jesus, I'm thankful, that you existed before time itself, that you are God, and that you are the resurrection and the life. And God, if you can resurrect Lazarus, if you can come back to life yourself, Lord, you can do anything. And I celebrate you today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Don't forget, John chapter 20 says, But these things are written that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him, you have life by the power of His name. I hope you experience that life today. And I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for John chapter twelve.