When Something Is Lost- Part 4
John 11:28-44

28  When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here
and is calling for you.” 29  And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30  Now Jesus had
not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31  When the Jews
who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her,
supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32  Now when Mary came to where Jesus
was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would
not have died.” 33  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping,
he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34  And he said, “Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35  Jesus wept. 36  So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37  But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this
man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus
38  Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39  Jesus
said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time
there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40  Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if
you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41  So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his
eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42  I knew that you always hear me, but I
said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43  When
he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44  The man who had
died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus
said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” 1
Where: Bethany- Literally means “House of dates or House of affliction.”
- When he was in Jerusalem, Jesus used Bethany as his base (as he used Capernaum in
Galilee). 2
Lazarus, Martha, and Mary live in Bethany
- Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 3 — John 11:18
Understanding the Situation:
- John 1:1-4
- Mary and Martha know that Jesus loves their brother. They know he has the ability to help
save their brother.
- They stress the problem: “He is ill.”
o The text tells us that Jesus waited too more days...despite the urgency of the
request
o The total of 4 days tells us that shortly after the messengers had left looking
for Jesus Lazarus died.
o WHEN JESUS FINALLY arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has been dead for four days. This
note is significant. There was a well-known Jewish belief (attested from about A.D.

1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Jn 11:28–44.
2 Gary M. Burge, John, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 2000), 312.
3 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Jn 11:18.

200) that the soul of a dead person remained in the vicinity of the body “hoping to
reenter it” for three days, but once decomposition set in, the soul departed. John
wants us to know clearly that Lazarus is truly dead and that the miracle of Jesus
cannot be construed as a resuscitation. 4
o POINT: Jesus knew what was happening. His delay appeared like he wasn’t caring
for their need, but in reality, he was doing a far greater work than they could see.
 MAJOR POINT: It may not appear like God’s delays are helpful, but it
is important for us to always remind ourselves that God isn’t seeing
our lives in the moment. He is seeing what is absolutely best for us all
in the full picture.

The Raising of the Dead:

We can assume that Lazarus was buried in a rock-cut tomb of the type that have been discovered
throughout the hills of Judea. Inside a cave room (perhaps ten to fifteen feet square) burial benches
were carved in stone along the inner wall. The body was prepared here and then laid in horizontally
cut burial tunnels (Heb. kochim) about six feet deep and there left to decompose. After a year or so,
the body was removed from the koch and the bones placed in a limestone “burial box” (an ossuary).
The tomb was closed (and reopened for further burials) with a wheel-shaped “rolling stone” fitted
to cover the entrance in a stone channel. 5
MAJOR POINT: God has emotion, but emotion doesn’t govern his decision.

Application: Jesus shows emotion here. God shows emotion all through the Bible, but we must be
very careful with emotion.
MAJOR POINT: Emotion is powerful, but what we feel and what is true do not always agree.
MAJOR POINT: Death grieves the heart of our Lord because it points to the fall of man.
- God warned Adam that disobedience would bring death (Gen. 2:15–17)—physical death
(the separation of the soul from the body) and spiritual death (the separation of the soul
from God). 6
But one key to understanding the gospel revolves around death. Instead of death being our story of
failure. Jesus converts death into a victory story through Him.
The Raising of Lazarus:
AS JESUS STEPS to the tomb itself (11:38), he is “once more deeply moved.” The verb used here is the
same one as in 11:33 (embrimaomai), which suggests he is outraged at what he sees. 7

4 Gary M. Burge, John, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 2000), 315.
5 Gary M. Burge, John, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 2000), 315.
6 Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books,
1992), 237.

DEATH IS AN OUTRAGE TO GOD. He is life! He gives life. Death is the devil’s stain on his
beautiful work.

CLOSING Sermon Illustration: “The Chair at the Table”
A man lost his wife after 42 years of marriage.
Every evening at 6:00, they had dinner together—same table, same seats, same rhythm of life.
After she passed, he still set the table… but only one plate.
Her chair remained empty.
For weeks, he couldn’t bring himself to move it.
He said, “That chair reminds me of everything I’ve lost.”
One night, his daughter came over and gently asked,
“Dad… why do you keep setting her place?”
He paused and said,
“Because I don’t know how to live without her.”
His daughter came to visit one day and noticed the chair.
She noticed her mom’s seat arranged as it always had been.
Then she took her dad’s hand and prayed.
She prayed that Jesus would help her father in the middle of this dark story.
A few weeks passed, and the man didn’t remove his wife’s chair
But the next time that his daughter came, she asked him why he added another place at the table
The man said that her prayer reminded him that he wasn’t sitting at the table alone
Jesus was sitting there too, and one day he would join his wife again at Jesus’s table.
So I added a chair to remind me of what is ahead instead of clinging to what is behind.

7 Gary M. Burge, John, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 2000), 319.