John 11 : 1 (HCSB)
Now a man was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
John 11 : 2 (HCSB)
Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.
John 11 : 3 (HCSB)
So the sisters sent a message to Him: "Lord, the one You love is sick."
John 11 : 4 (HCSB)
When Jesus heard it, He said, "This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
John 11 : 5 (HCSB)
(Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.)
John 11 : 6 (HCSB)
So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.
John 11 : 7 (HCSB)
Then after that, He said to the disciples, "Let's go to Judea again."
John 11 : 8 (HCSB)
"Rabbi," the disciples told Him, "just now the Jews tried to stone You, and You're going there again?"
John 11 : 9 (HCSB)
"Aren't there 12 hours in a day?" Jesus answered. "If anyone walks during the day, he doesn't stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
John 11 : 10 (HCSB)
If anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him."
John 11 : 11 (HCSB)
He said this, and then He told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm on My way to wake him up."
John 11 : 12 (HCSB)
Then the disciples said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well."
John 11 : 13 (HCSB)
Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought He was speaking about natural sleep.
John 11 : 14 (HCSB)
So Jesus then told them plainly, "Lazarus has died.
John 11 : 15 (HCSB)
I'm glad for you that I wasn't there so that you may believe. But let's go to him."
John 11 : 16 (HCSB)
Then Thomas (called "Twin") said to his fellow disciples, "Let's go so that we may die with Him."
John 11 : 17 (HCSB)
When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
John 11 : 18 (HCSB)
Bethany was near Jerusalem (about two miles away).
John 11 : 19 (HCSB)
Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
John 11 : 20 (HCSB)
As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him. But Mary remained seated in the house.
John 11 : 21 (HCSB)
Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.
John 11 : 22 (HCSB)
Yet even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You."
John 11 : 23 (HCSB)
"Your brother will rise again," Jesus told her.
John 11 : 24 (HCSB)
Martha said, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
John 11 : 25 (HCSB)
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.
John 11 : 26 (HCSB)
Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die-- ever. Do you believe this?"
John 11 : 27 (HCSB)
"Yes, Lord," she told Him, "I believe You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
John 11 : 28 (HCSB)
Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you."
John 11 : 29 (HCSB)
As soon as she heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.
John 11 : 30 (HCSB)
Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met Him.
John 11 : 31 (HCSB)
The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. So they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry there.
John 11 : 32 (HCSB)
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and told Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died!"
John 11 : 33 (HCSB)
When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He was angry in His spirit and deeply moved.
John 11 : 34 (HCSB)
"Where have you put him?" He asked. "Lord," they told Him, "come and see."
John 11 : 35 (HCSB)
Jesus wept.
John 11 : 36 (HCSB)
So the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"
John 11 : 37 (HCSB)
But some of them said, "Couldn't He who opened the blind man's eyes also have kept this man from dying?"
John 11 : 38 (HCSB)
Then Jesus, angry in Himself again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
John 11 : 39 (HCSB)
"Remove the stone," Jesus said. Martha, the dead man's sister, told Him, "Lord, he already stinks. It's been four days."
John 11 : 40 (HCSB)
Jesus said to her, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?"
John 11 : 41 (HCSB)
So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You heard Me.
John 11 : 42 (HCSB)
I know that You always hear Me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me."
John 11 : 43 (HCSB)
After He said this, He shouted with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
John 11 : 44 (HCSB)
The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him and let him go."
John 11 : 45 (HCSB)
Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He did believed in Him.
John 11 : 46 (HCSB)
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
John 11 : 47 (HCSB)
So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, "What are we going to do since this man does many signs?
John 11 : 48 (HCSB)
If we let Him continue in this way, everybody will believe in Him! Then the Romans will come and remove both our place and our nation."
John 11 : 49 (HCSB)
One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all!
John 11 : 50 (HCSB)
You're not considering that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish."
John 11 : 51 (HCSB)
He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
John 11 : 52 (HCSB)
and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children of God.
John 11 : 53 (HCSB)
So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.
John 11 : 54 (HCSB)
Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews but departed from there to the countryside near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim. And He stayed there with the disciples.
John 11 : 55 (HCSB)
The Jewish Passover was near, and many went up to Jerusalem from the country to purify themselves before the Passover.
John 11 : 56 (HCSB)
They were looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple complex: "What do you think? He won't come to the festival, will He?"
John 11 : 57 (HCSB)
The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it so they could arrest Him.
❮
❯