Unshaken: Chapter a Day

John 11 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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Death sits at the center of John 11, but it doesn’t get the last word. We walk through the story of Lazarus with clear eyes and open hearts, tracing how Jesus handles delay, grief, and glory with a mix of fierce love and unshakable authority. Martha hears a bold claim—I am the resurrection and the life—while Mary meets a Savior who weeps. That contrast isn’t a contradiction; it’s the model. Truth for the mind. Tears for the heart. Both are holy.

From there, we move to the tomb where Jesus prays out loud to teach those listening and then calls a dead man by name. Lazarus comes out still wrapped, and that detail reframes discipleship: new life often needs a faithful community to remove the old bindings. We talk about what “grave clothes” look like today—entrenched habits, shame, isolating patterns—and how the church can patiently unbind without shaming. We also wrestle with the unsettling fallout—some witnesses believe while others plot. Caiaphas tries political calculus, and God turns it into prophecy. Signs reveal; they don’t coerce. Expect both surrender and resistance when real life breaks in.

Along the way, we explore holy anger in the phrase “deeply moved,” the value of public prayer that edifies rather than performs, and the courage it takes to obey when risk rises. If you’ve ever wondered why love sometimes waits, how to grieve without losing hope, or what it means to hear Jesus say come out to places in you that feel dead, this conversation is for you. Listen, share it with a friend who needs hope stronger than death, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a review so more people can find it.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

Welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland, and we are talking John chapter 11. We're going to outline it. We're going to find some observations, do some interpretation, land the plane with an application you take along with you today. So uh starts off with the illness of Lazarus and Jesus delay in the first 16 verses. Lazarus, who's the brother of Mary, Martha, from you know the Martha who works a whole lot and Mary who likes to sit at the feet of Jesus. That Lazarus dies and he waits four days before he shows up. Then Jesus does arrive and he has come conversations with Martha and Mary, both sisters, and he has completely different conversations with them in verses 17 through 37. Martha, he gives a uh uh a lesson on the resurrection, and with Mary, he just weeps with her. Okay, then you've got verses 38 through 44, the raising of Lazarus at the tomb, a cave sealed by a stone. Jesus prays publicly, and then bam, Lazarus come out and he comes out. Verses 45 through 53 talks about the Sanhedrin's plot and Caiaphas' prophecy. Many Jews believe when they see the sign, but a bunch don't, and they are going to figure out a way to kill him, this guy who can raise people from the dead. Then finally, verses 54 through 57, um, Jesus withdraws and then he continues his ministry. He heads to uh Ephraim with the disciples, avoiding a Judea pre-Passover. Chief priests and Pharisees then issue orders for reporting his whereabouts, heightening the tension as people speculate about his arrival. All right, let's get into some observations that we see here. Um, I one thing I thought saw was Jesus is really human. He weeps, he's troubled, he has deep emotion and anger. Like, because it's it's a weird translation on that. Like he sees moved? Yeah, to be deeply moved. And I think in some translation he gets angry, right? Or it the word there is a that there's an anger stirred up in him about that uh emotional reaction. I don't think he's mad at uh anyone in particular there, but I do think he's mad at the way that sin has affected people. That would be my opinion on that.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, the the word for um deeply moved. Yeah, embrymaumai.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Embry Maumai, um it's uh says to be moved with anger is the first definition given. Right. Um, and so yeah, to be deeply moved, we think like inspired or something like that. But it's really more of like uh like a deep kind of loving, jealous, protective anger that's used in a different kind of way. And so um, yeah, it's it's an interesting emotion that Jesus.

Pastor Plek:

That's why I said I don't think he's like mad at Mary or any of the other people like for death. Yeah. And he's gonna conquer it. Exactly.

Pastor Holland:

Man, yeah, it's really awesome. Um, we also get uh a another I am statement here. We are now on to the fifth I am statement where Jesus, you know, again, I am ego, am I. It's uh hearkening back to um the revelation of God to Moses and the burning bush when he says, I am who I am. And so Jesus is identifying with that divine name of God with these seven I am statements. And there's the fifth one, I am the resurrection and the life. Yeah, and so just a reminder that he will conquer death. That's who he is.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, okay. And then I love Martha, who gives a bold confession of like, Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God. And even now, he'll give you whatever you have. I love that um just belief that Jesus can, but then a humility of like, I don't know if you will.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Yeah, she's she's really like, if once we get later to John chapter 20, where you know he says kind of the theme verse of the book, right? And these things are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, right? The Son of God, and by believing have life in his name. And here's what she says here I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God. And so she's really put forward as an exemplary confessor of Jesus. It's like, hey, she gets it.

Pastor Plek:

But he almost rebukes her, which is kind of it's like like you'd think that Jesus, like, because she says, Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died. And then like his response is like a theology lesson, which I just thought was sort of an odd like okay, but even now, Jesus, your brother will rise again. Like he's like, Yeah, your brother will rise again. And Mark, I know he'll rise again, the resurrection, Jesus said to her, I am the I love that it's like it's it's not gentle here, it doesn't feel that way. It feels like direct, it feels like you know, he's solemn, but he's not like hey, it's gonna be okay. Yeah, it's but then he's giving her a firm hope, and he's revealing himself to her. And I am the resurrection. Okay, then Mary says the same exact thing. She goes, Uh Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her weeping also, he was deeply moved. This part he gets angry. And then he said, Where have you laid him? They say, Come and see, Jesus wept. Like his response to them isn't anything theological, it isn't anything like it's just pure crying. Which then I wonder if, like, this was such a deep lesson of how God, I mean, especially if for if you've been raised in a household where it's the same dad or same mom, and you've got different siblings, the you approach them uniquely. Like, like if Jesus would have started crying with Martha, she'd be like, What the heck is wrong with you? She'd almost probably be mad at him. But with Mary, she needed lamentation, she needed his compassion with with um which I think is a wild thought, right? Like that Jesus ministers to us individually, even though we're from the same family, even same blood family, even go through the same thing, there's had the same loss, but Jesus knows how to respond to people uniquely.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And you know, Jesus wept. You shortest Bible verse. Why do you think the guy who numbered the Bible went just gave I that's exactly what I was about to say? I I just go, like you're reading through this, you're picking the Bible verse numbers, and you go, Well, you you can't really, you know, maybe you lump it in with verse 34. Yeah. I said to him, Lord, come and see Jesus wept. It's just, it seems like such a standalone statement, though, that it needs to be.

Pastor Plek:

And maybe the guy was just thought it was so profound, yeah, that he was like, I want to give this its own verse.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And I love it because, you know, Jesus has gone through a lot at this point and he hasn't wept over any of it. Right. You know, like when people try to kill him, try to stone him, say, call him, you've got a demon, you're insane. He's not crying because people are being mean to him. Right. He's not crying because life is hard. And, you know, he's, you know, he's tired or he's in pain. He weeps here, you know, over the over death and over the brokenness of how sin has ruined a good thing. And so it's like, to me, it's a good lesson of like, there are there is something that is right to cry about, even as a man, um, but it's not petty stuff, you know? It's not, it's not even like life's hard or I'm in pain, or people were mean to me. He's not crying about any of that stuff. But he he does weep here over the brokenness of the world.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

That's powerful to me.

Pastor Plek:

I think it's so amazing. And so the point about the verses, if you're not familiar with the Bible, remember that when the Bible was written, it didn't have verses. That was added hundreds of years later uh by a guy that wanted to make it just simpler so he could find passages.

Pastor Holland:

It not only didn't have verses, it didn't have spaces or punctuation. It was all capital letters with no spaces or punctuation.

Pastor Plek:

It was like one big like S M H I M O L. I was gonna say a different one.

Pastor Holland:

But uh so like be thankful when you read an English Bible that has verse numbers and chapter headings and capital and lowercase letters and punctuation, like man.

Pastor Plek:

And whenever they wrote God, they didn't actually write God, they wrote theta. But just for and they like just assume you knew that that meant God. Yeah. Uh anyway, so okay, yeah. Sorry, that was a little aside. Uh what other observations uh can you make? Hmm. Can I just get the one that it might be just too funny? Okay. There's Lazarus in heaven, right? Picking out, like hanging out in the mansion. He's been there for a couple days now. And then all of a sudden, there's a knock at the door. Hey, Lazarus, we don't typically do this, but uh turn we're sending you back. Sucked right out back on earth. Yeah, and you would be like, What? I mean, what a downer for Lazarus. And I wonder if why you don't ever hear from Lazarus again. He's just like, I just want to go back home. I like this is horrible. Like, you know, once you're in the presence of God, anything else is like I had just escaped this broken, sad, painful world. He finally, you know, his hip that was displaced was like working perfectly again.

Pastor Holland:

Okay, well, now on that, remember actually, maybe well, what do you believe about this? Before, my my theology on this is that before the resurrection of Christ, the souls of the departed did not go to heaven, but rather went down to the place of the dead, Sheol, or in Hebrew or Hades in Greek, um, a waiting place for the dead, where there's two sides, one for the righteous dead, one for the wicked dead. Um, and so it wasn't the heaven experience, although it was a I mean, it was definitely he was being comforted, like so Lazarus.

Pastor Plek:

There is a comfort there. He was being comforted at Abram's Abraham's bosom.

Pastor Holland:

But it was still a place that, you know, like David or other Psalms would say, like, I don't want to be in the place of the dead. I want to be in the land of the living. Right. You get the sense that life on earth was actually better than being in the land of the dead.

Pastor Plek:

All right, here's my only thought on Maybe. Maybe. Because I I mean, if you're at peace, like it's not like Samuel. Now, granted, we don't know if that was actually Samuel that was brought up by the witch, but like there is it's a place of peace, no more pain, all that at least, right? And you do recognize each other. You can't recognize one another there. Yeah. Um, and there's a chasm split between because the writ the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, not the same Lazarus, but a different Lazarus.

Pastor Holland:

Oh, ironically, it's a different that's true. That's kind of funny. Uh but uh yeah, he sees Abraham on the other side. He's on the wicked side, burning. The rich dude, yeah. But not the lake of fire, not hell yet, but just a very hot, uncomfortable. He's just like, cool my tongue, please. Yeah. But Abraham's over on the other side being comforted. Right. So, but then when Jesus resurrects and ascends to heaven, he brings the souls from the righteous dead side with him to heaven. And now when we die, we go to heaven, which is great.

Pastor Plek:

So do you think that when in the apostles' creed, when he he descended into hell, is that him going to get them and then Second Peter, where he like triumphs over them, like oh, the all the dead before that's taunting them. He proclaims the gospel and God's victory and judgment over death and ha hey sorry guys, I'm taking these guys to be with me.

Pastor Holland:

Listeners, look all of this up and enjoy uh theology of the underworld.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, it's kind of wild. It is uh so yeah, but so there is a deep theology there, and but to be fair, I do think the reason why I think the the land of the living is unique and special is because you aren't immortal. There's something really awesome about being mortal that that you are in danger, there's a real risk, there's a vulnerability that um it's like although we all want to watch football from the sidelines, to be a player in the game has a real special connotation. And there's a time where you want to do it and you're really excited, and there's a time to retire when your body kind of gives out. And so I think it's sort of like that. There's an excitement about being in the game. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

That's what I'm saying. I think Lazarus was hyped to be back, you know?

Pastor Plek:

He's like, all right, let's get another run of this. I don't know if he got any extra healing or if he was younger, better skin. I don't know. All right, sorry, go on. That was probably a side rabbit trail that we probably didn't need to go for so long. All right. What about Caiaphas? Is like he prophesies as the high priest, and he's right. Like he actually is right. The God uses his prop, he fulfills the prophecy. Yeah. But he's not of God. Right?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, he he's he's saying this kind of not knowing what he's even saying is the sense that you get. Like he's saying, like, uh, he's saying it in the sense of like, hey, if Jesus dies, sweet. It it's better, you know, it's better for us because we're rid of him. And he saves us. Yeah. Well, you know, it says, uh, yeah, he saves in the sense of like one man kind of uh they punish him and they'll leave us alone. Right. But what really was happening is he saves us by God punishes us and leaving us alone for the sins of the world. Right, right, right. Um, yeah, so it's like there's a double meaning there, and you didn't quite get the fullness of it. Okay, even though what he said was true.

Pastor Plek:

Absolutely. All right, let's get into some truths about the nature of man.

Pastor Holland:

Okay. Um, men die.

Pastor Plek:

We're mortal, we die. All right, that's good. Um, how about people deal with grief uniquely? Yeah. Um that like Mar Mary and Martha, same brother, same family, and they're coming to Jesus with the same statement but different heart behind it. Like different emotional conditions kind of interesting to me.

Pastor Holland:

And um, you know, weeping, there's a time to weep. Um Jesus wept, and it's uh I don't know, it's just it really does stand out as something really powerful news. There's some time for that.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, our culture isn't really good at crying. It's like we don't want to sit in our sorrow. We just like, okay, move on. In fact, I think there's a cool part about memorials of Christian uh church uh Christians that you're there's a celebration aspect, but there should be a part of it where you do cry. You get sad because you Exactly.

Pastor Holland:

There's a part of us that goes, no, this is you know, I don't want to be sad, I just want to be happy. And it's like actually, you know, there's a it's a it's good to grieve and lament and weep. That's an important thing to do appropriately. I I think sometimes we cry about all the wrong stuff. We cry, you know, we cry and complain and weep over petty things.

Pastor Plek:

Um like having a terrible football team or like you know, I didn't get the the job promotion that I wanted or the whatever the career or the what have you. Um how about this? People oscillate between belief and unbelief based on the same sign. Like when Lazarus walks out of the tomb, you would think everyone's like, sign me up. I'm a Christian. Yeah, right. But it it like even this is why you know, people. If I just saw Jesus, if I saw him do a miracle, if I whatever, I would believe. No, you wouldn't. Yeah, some of them saw and go, we gotta kill this guy. Right. Like their their response wasn't, that's amazing. Wow. Their response was he needs to die. Now, I don't know. Are demons anywhere raising people from the dead? I haven't heard of that. Usually demons celebrate death and they don't want to bring women back to life. Yeah, there is nothing about anything demonic. Demonic is all about death, like you know, wherever you see skulls, and there's you know, it's probably not great behind it, you know.

Pastor Holland:

Catholic Church, but they do kiss the skulls and keep the relics and kind of weird, but there it's an honorable.

Pastor Plek:

Maybe that speaks for itself. Go ahead. I don't know.

Pastor Holland:

Skulls, let's move on. Um but it it is interesting. They go, um, you know, we gotta kill him. And uh that that response is, you know, it's not it's not just like, man, if I saw good God do a sign, I would believe. It's actually like, well, maybe, or maybe you'd hate him even more.

Pastor Plek:

It just reminds me of Pharaoh. It's not like Pharaoh did see the the sign. Exactly. His heart was hardened. He's just like, every sign he saw is like, I'm gonna believe, not believe in spite of you. You know, it's like I'm gonna stick it to you.

Pastor Holland:

Um another one about you know, this is more of a metaphorical deal. Um, and so let me know what you think about this. But when when Lazarus comes out, he's wrapped in his grave clothes, and Jesus says, unbind him and let him go. And he was raised to life, but he still had the garment of death on. Nice. And so I think we can you can be a Christian raised to new spiritual life, but still be kind of wearing the garment of your old life. And you need the followers of Jesus to take off your grave clothes.

Pastor Plek:

Exactly. Man, all right. Um, how about this? Uh, character of God. Let's go there. God delays for a greater glory. That's good.

unknown:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Four days. Hey, you could have done it like you could have been here and like we could have skipped the grieving. But sometimes grieving is a part of leaving, living.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and you know, didn't just delay one or two days. Uh he let it sit. He until there was an odor. Until it was just like, this whole thing is getting there's tears, there's a stench, there's and right in this kind of right in that place, that's where I'm gonna show my daughter. Do you think it's stunk when they pulled open the stone?

Pastor Plek:

Everyone's like, oh god. I mean, that's what she said, right? Right. And then he goes, then he starts praying, and everyone's like gagging off to the side. Right. And then he said he calls him out. Yeah. Wow.

Pastor Holland:

Uh okay, what about uh also, you know, we're on God, right? Yeah. Lazarus come out, he's he says he says that to a dead man. The word of God brings life to the dead.

Pastor Plek:

Which is why demons don't raise people from the dead. Right. Because that goes against their kind of mantra. All right. God is intimately, passionately, angrily moved by human sorrow in a sense that he loves us uh with a jealous love and he hates it when we hurt. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Um I think it teaches us something here too. I don't know where this fits about nature of man, our God, but Jesus' public prayer. Yeah. When he prays out loud and he's like, I know you hear me. I'm saying this out loud for them. Yeah. Like he prays in it, and it's not just about what he's saying to God, but also how it's instructing others. I think there's there's something there about when we corporately pray in church, um, when we lead a public prayer, you know, uh at an event, or even pray over our food at dinner at our homes. There's something about prayer that is not just between me and God, but is also instructive in public.

Pastor Plek:

That's good. Because I think sometimes from uh Matthew chapter six, when you pray, go into your closet to your room or in secret, and then your father in heaven will reward you. There are times where it's appropriate to publicly pray and don't be afraid, ashamed, or think you're doing it wrong.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And your your public prayer is not meant to try to make people think you're cool. That's what he was criticizing in the Sermon on the Mount, right? It's but if it's meant to instruct and edify others, that's it.

Pastor Plek:

I love that. Yeah, because I feel like I feel like we we've sort of said, Oh, I don't want to pray because I don't want I want my prayers to be in secret. Yeah. And so we've privatized prayer as a you know, prayer is supposed to be personal, it's not necessarily supposed to be. Private, not merely private. There's private prayer and there's just public prayer. Right. Yeah. Okay. How about this? Uh let's get into an application. Uh, so we got a sin to avoid or confess, a promise to claim. How about an example to follow, a command to obey, and knowledge to believe? What you got?

Pastor Holland:

I love Jesus' courage and boldness here, where um the disciples say, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and you're gonna go there again. And he's like, Yes. Example to follow. Be bold, don't be fearful of others.

Pastor Plek:

That's good. How about promise claim? Jesus is the resurrection and the life. If you believe believe in him, even though you die, you're gonna live.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, knowledge to believe, the word of Jesus brings life. And so when you share his word with others, God may use that to change someone's life, to bring spiritual life, to wake them up from the dead. That's awesome.

Pastor Plek:

How about command obey? Come out. Lazarus, come out. If you're dead in sin, come out, come to new life in Jesus. Amen.

Pastor Holland:

Uh the example to follow of unbinding him from his grave clothes. And, you know, you may have a friend who is a Christian, but they've gotten back into some of their old ways, and they need the Christian community to love them enough to help take off the grave clothes again.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, there are any grave clothes you're still wearing. Oh, yeah. You need help getting it off. Um, how about uh knowledge to believe? Do not the the verse from first 40. Do not tell you if you believe you will see the glory of God. Like when you believe in him, you can know you're gonna see the glory of God.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Amen. Anything else?

Pastor Holland:

Jesus is gonna raise uh raise everyone to life one day. You know, when uh is it Mary or Martha? Martha. Martha. I know he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Just a reminder in terms of application of knowledge to believe. A day is coming where um Jesus will judge the living and the dead, and uh all will be raised up to stand before him in judgment. So again, come out, come to life, believe in Jesus. Amen.

Pastor Plek:

Hey, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you tomorrow on a chapter a day.

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