28. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30. I and the Father are one.”

31. Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32. But Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

33. “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

34. Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’? 35. If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came – and the Scripture cannot be broken – 36. What about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? 37. Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the evidence of the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 39. Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

40. Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed, 41. And many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42. And in that place many believed in Jesus.


CHAPTER ELEVEN


The Death of Lazarus

1. Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

2. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. 3. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

4. When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

7. Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

8. “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
9. Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. 10. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”

11. After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

12. His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15. Yet for your sake so that you may believe, I am glad I was not there. But let us go to him.”

16. Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Jesus Comforts the Sisters

17. On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

 

Topic: God Rules
John 11:1 - 44
The Last Enemy

All of us experience at one time or another the kind of all - encompassing grief and the gut wrenching questioning the Martha and Mary went through. We all lose family members of friends to death. Death is an enemy, and even Jesus was angry at it. Death was the ultimate price of sin (see Romans 5:12, p.1291), the penalty God had pronounced in the Garden   of Eden (see Genesis 2:17, p.25).

But Jesus came to break the power of sin and to bear its consequences in our place. By his death, life could come to us. The coming of the kingdom of God meant that even the power of death would be broken. When Jesus raised Lazarus and restored him to his sisters, he held out the promise of a greater resurrection to come. Just a short time later, Jesus himself rose from the dead, defeating our greatest enemy forever!

Have you feared death? Ask Jesus to give you a glimpse of his resurrection power.

SEE ALSO:
1 Corinthians 15:26; Hebrews 2:14 - 15

 

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THE STARTING POINT STUDY BIBILE New International Version
The Luis Palau Evangelistic Association / www.luispalau.org