John 11:11 Study Bible: He said these things, and after that, he said to them, "Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep."

◄ John 11:11 ►

After He had said this, He told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up."

After He had said this
This phrase indicates a continuation of a previous discourse. In the context of John 11, Jesus is speaking to His disciples. The Greek word for "after" is "meta," which often signifies a transition or a shift in focus. Here, it marks a pivotal moment where Jesus moves from teaching to action. Historically, this setting is just before Jesus performs one of His most significant miracles, the raising of Lazarus. This transition underscores the importance of His forthcoming actions as a demonstration of His divine authority.

He told them
The phrase "He told them" emphasizes the direct communication from Jesus to His disciples. The Greek verb "eipen" is used here, which is a form of "lego," meaning to speak or to say. This verb is often used in the Gospels to introduce important teachings or revelations from Jesus. The use of direct speech highlights the personal and intimate relationship Jesus has with His disciples, as well as the importance of the message He is about to convey.

Our friend Lazarus
The term "our friend" is significant, as it shows the personal connection and affection Jesus has for Lazarus. The Greek word "philos" is used for "friend," which denotes a beloved or dear one. This term is not used lightly and indicates a deep bond. Lazarus, along with his sisters Mary and Martha, were close to Jesus, and this relationship is well-documented in the Gospels. The use of "our" also includes the disciples in this relationship, suggesting a communal bond and shared concern.

has fallen asleep
The phrase "has fallen asleep" is a euphemism for death, commonly used in both Jewish and early Christian contexts. The Greek word "kekoimētai" is derived from "koimaō," meaning to sleep. This metaphorical use of sleep for death is found throughout Scripture, emphasizing the temporary nature of death for believers. It reflects the hope of resurrection and eternal life, a central tenet of Christian faith. This choice of words by Jesus is intentional, foreshadowing the miracle He is about to perform and the ultimate victory over death.

but I am going there
The phrase "but I am going there" indicates Jesus' intentionality and purpose. The Greek word "poreuomai" is used for "going," which implies a journey or mission. Jesus is not merely traveling; He is on a divine mission. This reflects His obedience to the Father's will and His commitment to His earthly ministry. Historically, this journey to Bethany, where Lazarus is, is fraught with danger, as it brings Jesus closer to Jerusalem and the impending crucifixion. Yet, Jesus' resolve underscores His dedication to His mission and His love for Lazarus.

to wake him up
The phrase "to wake him up" completes the metaphor of sleep, indicating Jesus' power over death. The Greek word "exypnizō" means to awaken or rouse from sleep. This action is not just a physical awakening but a spiritual one, symbolizing the resurrection power of Christ. In the broader scriptural context, this act prefigures Jesus' own resurrection and the promise of eternal life for all believers. It serves as a powerful testament to Jesus' divine authority and the hope of resurrection for all who believe in Him.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Jesus
The central figure in this passage, Jesus is the one who speaks about Lazarus. He is the Son of God, performing miracles and teaching His disciples.

2. Lazarus
A friend of Jesus who has "fallen asleep," which is a euphemism for death. Lazarus lives in Bethany and is the brother of Mary and Martha.

3. Disciples
The followers of Jesus who are with Him when He makes this statement. They often struggle to understand the deeper meanings of Jesus' words.

4. Bethany
The village where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha live. It is located near Jerusalem and is the setting for the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead.

5. The Event of Lazarus' Death and Resurrection
This event is a significant miracle that demonstrates Jesus' power over death and foreshadows His own resurrection.

Teaching Points

Understanding Death from a Christian Perspective
Death is not the end for believers; it is likened to sleep, indicating a temporary state before the resurrection.

Jesus' Authority Over Life and Death
Jesus demonstrates His divine authority by raising Lazarus, showing that He has power over death itself.

The Importance of Faith in Jesus' Words
The disciples' misunderstanding highlights the need for faith and spiritual insight to grasp the deeper meanings of Jesus' teachings.

Hope in the Resurrection
Believers can find comfort in the promise of resurrection, as demonstrated by Jesus' actions and teachings.

The Role of Miracles in Revealing Jesus' Identity
Miracles like the raising of Lazarus serve to reveal Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, strengthening the faith of His followers.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the metaphor of sleep in John 11:11 help us understand the Christian view of death and resurrection?

2. In what ways does Jesus' statement about Lazarus challenge the disciples' understanding of His power and mission?

3. How can the raising of Lazarus strengthen our faith in Jesus' promises about eternal life?

4. What other biblical events or teachings reinforce the idea of Jesus' authority over life and death?

5. How can we apply the hope of resurrection in our daily lives, especially when facing the loss of loved ones?

Connections to Other Scriptures

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
Paul uses the metaphor of sleep to describe believers who have died, similar to Jesus' description of Lazarus. This connection emphasizes the hope of resurrection for believers.

Mark 5:39
Jesus uses the same metaphor of sleep when referring to Jairus' daughter, indicating His authority over life and death.

John 5:28-29
Jesus speaks about the resurrection of the dead, reinforcing His power to give life and His role as the judge of all.

Sermons

Death and Sleep	D. Young	John 11:11
Sleeping and Waking	J.R. Thomson	John 11:11
Three Views of Three Vital Subjects	B. Thomas	John 11:11
A Beautiful Death	T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.	John 11:11-13
Death as Sleep	Bishop Ryle.	John 11:11-13
Death has the Advantage of Sleep	M. Henry.	John 11:11-13
Sleep and Death		John 11:11-13
Sweet Sleep	A. G. Brown.	John 11:11-13
The Awakening Christ	Weekly Pulpit	John 11:11-13
The Christian in Life and in Death	T. Whitelaw, D. D.	John 11:11-13
The Friendship of Christ	J. H. Stewart, M. A.	John 11:11-13

People

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

Places

Bethany, Ephraim, Jerusalem, Judea

Topics

Added, Afterwards, Asleep, Awake, Awaken, Fallen, Friend, Lazarus, Laz'arus, Rest, Says, Sleep, Sleepeth, Sleeping, Spake, Spoke, Thus, Wake

Dictionary of Bible Themes

John 11:11

8122 friendship, with God

John 11:1-44

5285 cures
9165 restoration

John 11:11-13

9105 last things

John 11:11-14

     5288   dead, the
     5535   sleep, and death
     9022   death, believers

John 11:11-23

4925 delay, divine

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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