John 11:22 Study Bible: Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."

◄ John 11:22 ►

But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him."

But even now
This phrase signifies a pivotal moment of faith and hope amidst despair. Martha, speaking to Jesus after the death of her brother Lazarus, expresses a profound belief that transcends the immediate circumstances. The Greek word for "now" (νῦν, nyn) indicates the present moment, emphasizing Martha's immediate and unwavering faith despite the apparent finality of death. This reflects a deep trust in Jesus' divine authority and power, suggesting that faith is not bound by time or situation.

I know
The Greek word used here is "οἶδα" (oida), which implies a deep, intuitive knowledge or understanding. Martha's statement is not merely intellectual assent but a heartfelt conviction. This knowledge is rooted in her personal relationship with Jesus and her understanding of His divine nature. It serves as a reminder that true faith is grounded in a personal and experiential knowledge of Christ, which provides assurance even in the face of uncertainty.

that God will give You
This phrase underscores the intimate relationship between Jesus and the Father. The Greek verb "δίδωμι" (didōmi) means "to give," indicating a willingness and readiness on God's part to respond to Jesus' requests. This reflects the unity and harmony within the Trinity, where the will of the Son aligns perfectly with the will of the Father. It also highlights the authority of Jesus as the Son of God, whose intercessions are always heard and granted by the Father.

whatever You ask of Him
The word "whatever" (ὅσα, hosa) signifies the limitless scope of Jesus' requests to the Father. This phrase illustrates the boundless power and authority of Jesus, who can ask for anything according to God's will. It also reflects the confidence that believers can have in Jesus' intercessory role. Historically, this moment foreshadows the resurrection of Lazarus, demonstrating that Jesus has authority over life and death. It serves as an encouragement for believers to trust in Jesus' power to intervene in any situation, no matter how dire it may seem.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Martha
The sister of Lazarus and Mary, known for her active service and faith in Jesus. In this passage, she expresses her belief in Jesus' power and divine connection.

2. Jesus
The central figure of the Gospel, the Son of God, who is about to perform the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead.

3. Lazarus
The brother of Martha and Mary, who has died and whose resurrection by Jesus is the focal event of this chapter.

4. Bethany
The village where Martha, Mary, and Lazarus lived, located near Jerusalem. It is the setting for this miraculous event.

5. The Disciples
Followers of Jesus who are present during this event, witnessing His power and authority over life and death.

Teaching Points

Faith in Jesus' Authority
Martha's statement reflects a deep faith in Jesus' divine authority and relationship with God. Believers are encouraged to trust in Jesus' power and intercession.

The Power of Prayer
This verse underscores the importance of prayer and the belief that God hears and answers the prayers of the faithful.

God's Sovereignty
While Martha expresses confidence in Jesus' ability to ask and receive from God, it also points to the sovereignty of God in determining the outcome according to His will.

Hope in Desperate Situations
Even in the face of death, Martha's faith shows that believers can have hope and trust in God's power to bring life and restoration.

Active Faith
Martha's declaration is an example of active faith, where belief is not passive but involves a confident expectation in God's response.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does Martha's faith in John 11:22 challenge us to trust in Jesus' authority and power in our own lives?

2. In what ways can we apply the principle of asking in faith, as seen in John 11:22, to our daily prayer life?

3. How does the context of John 11:22 enhance our understanding of God's sovereignty and timing in answering prayers?

4. What other biblical examples can you find where faith in God's power led to miraculous outcomes, and how do they relate to this passage?

5. How can we cultivate a faith like Martha's that remains steadfast even in seemingly hopeless situations?

Connections to Other Scriptures

John 14:13-14
Jesus promises that whatever is asked in His name will be done, highlighting the power of prayer and faith in His divine authority.

Matthew 21:22
Emphasizes the importance of faith in prayer, reinforcing the idea that belief is crucial for receiving from God.

Hebrews 11:6
Discusses the necessity of faith to please God, aligning with Martha's expression of faith in Jesus' ability to ask and receive from God.

1 John 5:14-15
Speaks about the confidence we have in approaching God, knowing that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Sermons

Even Now	Charles Haddon Spurgeon	John 11:22
A Near Benefit not Understood	G. J. Browne, M. A.	John 11:17-27
Believing	N. L. Frotheringham.	John 11:17-27
Christ Lives	Lamartine.	John 11:17-27
Christ the Resurrection and the Life	E. L. Hull, B. A.	John 11:17-27
Christ the Resurrection and the Life	John Thomson, D. D.	John 11:17-27
Christ the Resurrection and the Life	W. M. Punshon, LL. D.	John 11:17-27
Christ the Resurrection and the Life	W. G. Blaikie, D. D.	John 11:17-27
Christ, Both Resurrection and Life	E. L. Hull, B. A.	John 11:17-27
Christ's Help is Sure, If Delayed	J. Trapp.	John 11:17-27
Christ's Treatment of Death	T. T. Munger.	John 11:17-27
Contingent Events and Providence	A. P. Peabody, D. D.	John 11:17-27
Death Avoided	Bp. Westcott., D. Thomas, D. D.	John 11:17-27
Death Defeated by Prayer		John 11:17-27
Earthly Relationship not Destroyed by Death	D. J. Vaughan, M. A.	John 11:17-27
Faith, not Understanding, Brings Us the Blessing	J. Trapp.	John 11:17-27
Funeral Sermon	J. Judson.	John 11:17-27
Grace Imagined Less	J. Culross, D. D.	John 11:17-27
If	Boston Homilies	John 11:17-27
Jesus and Martha	D. Thomas, D. D.	John 11:17-27
Life Everlasting	Archdeacon Manning.	John 11:17-27
Martha and Jesus	C. H. Spurgeon.	John 11:17-27
Martha Meeting Christ	Bp. Ryle.	John 11:17-27
Martha's Creed	M. Henry., C. E. Luthardt, D. D.	John 11:17-27
Natural Analogies of the Resurrection	J. Wilson.	John 11:17-27
Oriental Consolers	S. S. Times	John 11:17-27
Our Treatment of the Promises	C. H. Spurgeon.	John 11:17-27
Restoration Better Titan Prevention	J. Matthews.	John 11:17-27
Salvation, not from Suffering, But by It	Bp. Huntington.	John 11:17-27
The Believer Catechized	C. H. Spurgeon.	John 11:17-27
The Consolation of the Text	J. Culross, D. D., New Handbook of Illustrations.	John 11:17-27
The Consolations of Christ Adapted to She State and Character of His People	R. S. Candlish, D. D.	John 11:17-27
The Identity of the Earthly and the Heavenly Life	A. P. Peabody, D. D.	John 11:17-27
The Imperfection of Spiritual Qualities	J. Donne, D. D.	John 11:17-27
The Interview with Martha	T. Whitelaw, D. D.	John 11:17-27
The Journey	J. Culross.	John 11:17-27
The Master Advocate	J. Trapp.	John 11:17-27
The Mystery of the Resurrection	Sir T. Browne.	John 11:17-27
The Philosophy of Christian Hope	Dean Perowne., C. H. Spurgeon.	John 11:17-27
The Power of God to Prevent Death	N. Emmons, D. D.	John 11:17-27
The Resurrection	Archdeacon Manning.	John 11:17-27
The Resurrection and the Life	J. Parsons.	John 11:17-27
Martha's Faith	B. Thomas	John 11:21-27

People

Caiaphas, Didymus, Jesus, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, Thomas

Places

Bethany, Ephraim, Jerusalem, Judea

Topics

Mayest, Request, Whatever, Whatsoever, Wilt

Dictionary of Bible Themes

John 11:1-44

5285 cures
9165 restoration

John 11:11-23

4925 delay, divine

John 11:17-22

2048 Christ, love of

John 11:17-32

5737 sisters

John 11:17-44

5745 women

Library

March 28 Evening
Our friend sleepeth.--JOHN 11:11. I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. But now is Christ risen from the …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 6 Morning
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.--COL. 3:4. I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.--God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 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 …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

March 11 Evening
Jesus wept.--JOHN 11:35. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.--We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.--It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.--Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

June 22 Evening
Behold how he loved.--JOHN 11:36. He died for all.--Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. He . . . liveth to make intercession for them.--I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again, and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also.--Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.--Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. We love him, because he first loved loved us.--The …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 30 Evening
Thou hearest me always.--JOHN 11:42. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.--Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.--Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.--Not my will, but thine, be done. As he is, so are we in this world.--This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Christ's Question to Each
For the Young '... Believest then this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord.'--JOHN xi. 26, 27. As each of these annual sermons which I have preached for so long comes round, I feel more solemnly the growing probability that it may be the last. Like a man nearing the end of his day's work, I want to make the most of the remaining moments. Whether this is the last sermon of the sort that I shall preach or not, it is certainly the last of the kind that some of you will hear from me, or possibly from any …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Open Grave at Bethany
'Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met Him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Seventh Miracle in John's Gospel --The Raising of Lazarus
'And when Jesus thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, Come forth. 44. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin.'--JOHN xi. 43, 44. The series of our Lord's miracles before the Passion, as recorded in this Gospel, is fitly closed with the raising of Lazarus. It crowns the whole, whether we regard the greatness of the fact, the manner of our Lord's working, the minuteness and richness of the accompanying details, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Caiaphas
'And one of them, named Caiaphas being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.'--JOHN xi. 49,50. The resurrection of Lazarus had raised a wave of popular excitement. Any stir amongst the people was dangerous, especially at the Passover time, which was nigh at hand, when Jerusalem would be filled with crowds of men, ready to take fire from any spark …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Delays of Love
'Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was.'--JOHN xi. 5, 6. We learn from a later verse of this chapter that Lazarus had been dead four days when Christ reached Bethany. The distance from that village to the probable place of Christ's abode, when He received the message, was about a day's journey. If, therefore, to the two days on which He abode still after the receipt of the news, we …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Miracles no Remedy for Unbelief.
"And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?"--Numbers xiv. 11. Nothing, I suppose, is more surprising to us at first reading, than the history of God's chosen people; nay, on second and third reading, and on every reading, till we learn to view it as God views it. It seems strange, indeed, to most persons, that the Israelites should have acted as they did, age after age, in …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

A Mystery! Saints Sorrowing and Jesus Glad!
Jesus is talking of the death of His friend, let us listen to His words; perhaps we may find the key to His actions in the words of His lips. How surprising! He does not say, "I regret that I have tarried so long." He does not say, "I ought to have hastened, but even now it is not too late." Hear, and marvel! Wonder of wonders, He says, "I am glad that I was not there." Glad! the word is out of place? Lazarus, by this time, stinketh in his tomb,and here is the Saviour glad! Martha and Mary are weeping …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864

Beloved, and yet Afflicted
We need not be astonished that the man whom the Lord loves is sick, for he is only a man. The love of Jesus does not separate us from the common necessities and infirmities of human life. Men of God are still men. The covenant of grace is not a charter of exemption from consumption, or rheumatism, or asthma. The bodily ills, which come upon us because of our flesh, will attend us to the tomb, for Paul saith, "we that are in this body do groan." Those whom the Lord loves are the more likely to be …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 26: 1880

Though He were Dead
Martha, you see, in this case, when the Lord Jesus Christ told her that her brother would rise again, replied, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." She was a type, I say, of certain anxious believers, for she set a practical bound to the Saviour's words. "Of course there will be a resurrection, and then my brother will rise with the rest." She concluded that the Saviour could not mean anything beyond that. The first meaning and the commonest meaning that suggests …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 30: 1884

Even Now
"Even now."--John 11:22 I HOPE that there are a great many persons here who are interested in the souls of those around them. We shall certainly never exercise faith concerning those for whose salvation we have no care. I trust, also, that we are diligent in looking after individuals, especially those who are amongst our own family and friends. This is what Martha did; her whole care was for her brother. It is often easier to have faith that Christ can save sinners in general, than to believe that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

Oh, How He Loves!
"Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!"--John 11:36. IT WAS AT THE GRAVE OF LAZARUS that Jesus wept, and his grief was so manifest to the onlookers that they said, "Behold how he loved him!" Most of us here, I trust, are not mere onlookers, but we have a share in the special love of Jesus. We see evidences of that love, not in his tears, but in the precious blood that he so freely shed for us; so we ought to marvel even more than those Jews did at the love of Jesus, and to see further into …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 56: 1910

The Welcome visitor
IT seems that Martha had heard of Christ's coming, and Mary had not. Hence Martha rose up hastily and went to meet the Master, while Mary sat still in the house. From this we gather that genuine believers may, through some unexplained cause, be at the same time in very different states of mind. Martha may have heard of the Lord and seen the Lord; and Mary, an equally loving heart, not having known of his presence, may, therefore, have missed the privilege of fellowship with him. Who shall say that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

The Displeasure of Jesus.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.--John xi. 33. Grimm, in his lexicon to the New Testament, after giving as the equivalent of the word [Greek: embrimaomai] in pagan use, 'I am moved with anger,' 'I roar or growl,' 'I snort at,' 'I am vehemently angry or indignant with some one,' tells us that in Mark i. 43, and Matthew ix. 30, it has a meaning different from that of the pagans, namely, 'I command with …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

The Disciple, -- Master, what is the Real Meaning of Service? is it that We...
The Disciple,--Master, what is the real meaning of service? Is it that we serve the Creator and then His creatures for His sake? Is the help of man, who is after all but a mere worm, of any value to God in caring for His great family, or does God stand in need of the help of man in protecting or preserving any of His creatures? The Master,--1. Service means the activity of the spiritual life and is the natural offering prompted by love. God, who is Love, is ever active in the care of His creation, …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

How to Make Use of Christ as the Life, when the Believer is So Sitten-Up in the Ways of God, that He Can do Nothing.
Sometimes the believer is under such a distemper of weakness and deadness, that there is almost no commanded duty that he can go about; his heart and all is so dead, that he cannot so much as groan under that deadness. Yea, he may be under such a decay, that little or no difference will be observed betwixt him and others that are yet in nature; and be not only unable to go actively and lively about commanded duties, yea, or to wrestle from under that deadness; but also be so dead, that he shall scarce …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Of the Intimate Love of Jesus
When Jesus is present all is well and nothing seemeth hard, but when Jesus is not present everything is hard. When Jesus speaketh not within, our comfort is nothing worth, but if Jesus speaketh but a single word great is the comfort we experience. Did not Mary Magdalene rise up quickly from the place where she wept when Martha said to her, The Master is come and calleth for thee?(1) Happy hour when Jesus calleth thee from tears to the joy of the spirit! How dry and hard art thou without Jesus! …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Peræa to Bethany. Raising of Lazarus.
^D John XI. 1-46. ^d 1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. [For Bethany and the sisters, see p. 478.] 2 And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair [John xii. 3 ], whose brother Lazarus was sick. [The anointing had not yet taken place, as John himself shows. For a similar anticipation see Matt. x. 4. There are five prominent Marys in the New Testament: those of Nazareth, Magdala and Bethany; the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Retiring Before the Sanhedrin's Decree.
(Jerusalem and Ephraim in Judæa.) ^D John XI. 47-54. ^d 47 The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council [called a meeting of the Sanhedrin], and said, What do we? [Thus they reproach one another for having done nothing in a present and urgent crisis. As two of their number (Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathæa) were afterwards in communications with Christians, it was easy for the disciples to find out what occurred on this notable occasion.] for this man doeth many signs. …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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