Life of Christ Lesson 110: The Resurrection and the Life - Part II {Lazarus, Come Forth!}

John 11:17-54

In the first part of this two-part look at the raising of Lazarus from the dead (Lesson 109), we found nothing but death and despair, from the human perspective.  Lazarus was dead, the disciples could only think of Jesus' death at the hands of the Pharisees, and Thomas (Didymas) spoke about all of them dying!  When this lesson opens, Martha and Mary are only thinking of death, for their dear brother had died.  All this focus on death, the desolation it brings, and man's hopelessness in the face of it, divinely served as the dark and gloomy contrasting background against which the Lord Jesus could all the more brilliantly display His glory and power as "The Resurrection and the Life"!

What an amazing site when a four-day dead Lazarus, still bound in grave strips like a mummy, came walking forth out of his tomb in response to the words of his Saviour, "Lazarus, come forth"!  The greatest news ever given to human ears were spoken to Martha in John 11:25, 26 by the Lord Jesus, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die"!

The greatest news men can ever hear is that death need not be feared!  The One Who made that possible is Jesus Christ!