João 11
Samuel Johnson · Citado em PreceptAustin
João 11
Johnson - Our Lord's delays are always purposeful. Love always has a purpose. Therefore, we are always right to seek the purposes for our Lord's delays. (1) Jesus delayed because He knew that Lazarus was already dead. (2) Jesus delayed because He purposed to raise Lazarus from the grave. Most Jews believed that the spirit of a person lingered near the body of the dead for three days. Jesus would wait for four days to give absolute assurance that His raising of Lazarus was by His power. (3) Jesus delayed that God would get glory from the miracle. Could He have healed Lazarus from a distance?” Of course. But everything He did, He did for the glory of God. (4) Jesus delayed because raising Lazarus after being dead for four days would inspire others to have faith in Him. Steven
João 11
Johnson - Sleep is harmless and temporary. It speaks of Rest, Relief, and Rising again. Our word cemetery comes from the Greek word that means “sleeping places” or “sleeping chambers.” (from a Greek word related to koimao, koimeterion, a place of sleep. ) The word “resurrection” means “to stand up.” After death, we will stand up again. NET Note on asleep - The verb κοιμάω (koimaō) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for death when speaking of believers. This metaphorical usage by its very nature emphasizes the hope of resurrection: Believers will one day “wake up” out of death. Here the term refers to death, but “asleep” was used in the translation to emphasize the metaphorical, rhetorical usage of the term, especially in light of the disciples’ confusion over what Jesus actually meant (see Jn 11:13). Sleep is only used to refer to the death of believers, because for unbelievers death will be their worst nightmare! Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown - These things said he: and after that he saith, Our friend Lazarus - illustrious title from such Lips! To Abraham only did the Lord under the Old Testament accord this, and not until hundreds of years after his death (2Chr 20:7; Isa 41:8); to which, as something very unusual, our attention is called in the New Testament (Jas 2:23). When Jesus came in the flesh, His forerunner applied this name, in a certain official sense, to himself (John 3:29); and into the same fellowship the Lord’s chosen disciples are declared to have come (John 15:13-15). Lampe well remarks that the phrase here employed - “our friend Lazarus” - means more than “he whom Thou lovest” (John 11:3); because it implies that Christ’s affection was reciprocated by Lazarus. Adrian Rogers (page 632) - Lazarus is dead. May I say, dear friend, there was really only one thing wrong with Lazarus: he was dead. And so, since there was only one thing wrong with him, there was nothing right with him. May I say to you that how many things that you think may be right with you, if you’re not saved, there’s one thing wrong with you that makes everything else wrong with you that you may think is right with you? You are “dead in trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) You see, I preached a funeral this past Friday for a dear friend and brother in Christ, a comrade, Bill Harrison. Bill’s body was right down there. Many people came to hear me who were dead, and Bill wasn’t. Bill wasn’t dead. Jesus said, “[He that lives] and [believes] in me shall never die.” (John 11:26) Bill Harrison—it was impossible for him to die. But a lot of dead people were here at the funeral, but they didn’t think they were dead; they thought he was dead, but he wasn’t dead. He’s kicking gold dust on the streets of glory. He wasn’t dead, but a lot of dead people were here at the funeral, saying, “Poor Bill. He is dead.”....Jesus broke up every funeral He ever attended. E H Harding - Jesus called Lazarus His friend,—blessed title, glorious privilege, friend of Jesus! Am I His friend? He gives us the test,—“Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” His command is, Trust Me, love Me, serve Me. Do I obey this? Then I am Jesus’ friend, and still more, He is my friend. This friendship is a treasure neither time nor chance, men nor devils, life nor death can take away. Let us not imagine Christ is not our friend because we suffer. He allowed Lazarus to die, yet we are told, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Jesus’ friends now on earth may all die, may all sleep; but He has not forgotten them. One day He will say to the angels: “My friends sleep, but I go to awake them.” Then “the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Someone has well said that man is the only creature who knows he is going to die and he tries desperately to forget it. Mention death and people will try to change the subject. When Hardly Denham was pastor of FBC Newton, MS., he was told by one of the leaders of the church to never preach on the subject of death. He said, “I wish I never had to preach on death or dying, but as long as men die, I must.” Death and dying are not pleasant topics, but unless Jesus returns in our lifetime, every person will experience death. But - Great term of contrast! What's the dramatic contrast Jesus is predicting? I go, so that (hina = term of purpose - what purpose?) I may awaken him out of sleep - Jesus always lived purposely and here His purpose is to carry out one of His great miracles of raising Lazarus from the dead. Awaken is the verb exupnizo (only here) which was used of arousing a sleeping person! In this context clearly the sense is figurative, meaning to "arouse" Lazarus from the dead or cause him to come to life again.