Jesus has power over death, fear, and hopelessness.
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17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
18 Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away).
19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.
22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
23“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.
26Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”
28 Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”
29 As soon as Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
30 Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry there.
32 As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!”
33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.
34“Where have you put him?” he asked. “Lord,” they told him, “come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
39“Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me.
42I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent me.”
43 After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”
Study overview
This is the last week of our study, and the last and greatest sign before Jesus goes to the cross. A family Jesus loves has lost a brother. Jesus arrives four days late. He listens to two grieving sisters, weeps at a tomb, and then calls a dead man out by name.
Come ready to be honest about grief and waiting, to hear one of the boldest things Jesus ever said about himself, and to look back over eight weeks at who Jesus has shown himself to be.
The three scheduled key points
Jesus enters our grief. He does not hurry past Martha’s questions or Mary’s tears; he weeps with them (11:33–35).
He calls dead things back to life. A man four days in the tomb hears Jesus’ voice and comes out (11:43–44).
Faith often grows while we’re waiting. Martha’s faith speaks before the miracle, not after it (11:21–27).
Prayer before study
Use this guide in several short sittings. Keep John 11 open beside you, and leave room for questions as well as answers. If you are carrying a fresh loss, go gently. This passage was written for grieving people.
1. Love, delay, and a grave four days old
John 11:1–16 • What happened before Jesus arrived
Read the opening verses before you begin. Martha and Mary send Jesus a simple message: “Lord, the one you love is sick” (11:3). Then John tells us two things side by side that we might not expect together.
John does not explain away the tension, and neither should we. Jesus’ delay was not a lack of love. Jesus had already said this sickness would end in the glory of God (11:4). But that does not mean every delay we experience has a reason we will understand right away, or that every sick loved one will be raised in this life. What it does mean is that his love and his timing are not enemies.
John 11:17–22 • Martha’s honest faith
By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days (11:17). There is no doubt he is dead. Friends have come to comfort the family. Martha goes out to meet Jesus while Mary stays home.
Martha says what many of us have said: “Lord, if you had been here.” Jesus does not scold her for it. Then, in the very next sentence, she adds, “Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you” (11:22). Honest grief and real faith are not opposites. Martha holds them both.
Reflect: Is there an “If you had been here” in my own life that I have never said honestly to Jesus?
2. “I am the resurrection and the life”
John 11:23–27 • From a doctrine to a person
Jesus tells Martha her brother will rise again. She agrees, thinking of the final resurrection “at the last day” (11:24). That was solid belief. Jesus moves her from a future event to a present person.
Jesus does not only promise resurrection; he is resurrection. Life is not a thing he hands out from a distance, but something that is found in him. Earlier he said, “I am the bread of life” (6:35), and “I am the good shepherd” (10:11). Now he speaks into the one enemy no one has beaten: death.
Read verses 25–26 slowly. “Even if he dies, will live” speaks of resurrection beyond death. “Will never die” speaks of a life with God that death cannot cut off. Christians still die, and still grieve. But death does not have the last word for anyone who belongs to Jesus.
Martha’s confession
Martha’s words almost exactly match the reason John gives for writing his whole Gospel: “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Standing next to her brother’s grave, before any miracle, Martha says the thing the whole book is aiming for.
DO YOU BELIEVE THIS? Jesus asked Martha directly (11:26). It is worth letting him ask you too, not as a quiz, but as an invitation.
Reflect: What is the difference between believing in the resurrection and believing in Jesus, who is the resurrection?
3. Jesus wept
John 11:28–35 • Jesus enters our grief
Mary comes and falls at Jesus’ feet and says the same words Martha said (11:32). This time Jesus does not answer with teaching. He sees her weeping and the mourners weeping.
Where interpreters differ: The word translated “deeply moved” can carry a sense of strong indignation. Many interpreters think Jesus is angered at death itself, the enemy that has torn this family apart. Others hear mostly deep grief and compassion, and some see distress at the unbelief around him. These readings can sit together. None of them suggests Jesus was cold.
Jesus knew he was about to raise Lazarus. He wept anyway. His tears were not a lack of faith or a loss of control. They show that grief is not unbelief, and that God is not distant from our pain. Hebrews says we have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). Here we see it with our own eyes.
This also gives us permission. If Jesus can weep at a grave he is about to empty, we do not need to rush ourselves or others past sorrow. Paul says to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), and that believers grieve, but not “like the rest, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
John 11:36–40 • Waiting at the stone
Some in the crowd see his love. Others ask why he did not prevent the death (11:36–37). Jesus comes to the tomb and tells them to remove the stone. Practical Martha objects: it has been four days, and there will be a smell (11:39).
Reflect: Where have I been told, or told myself, that sadness means weak faith? What does Jesus’ weeping say to that?
4. “Lazarus, come out!”
John 11:41–44 • The voice that wakes the dead
Jesus prays aloud, thanking the Father for hearing him, so the people standing there will believe (11:41–42). Then he shouts.
A few verses after our Week 5 passage, Jesus said, “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). And in Week 7, the Good Shepherd “calls his own sheep by name” (10:3). At Lazarus’s tomb, both of those promises happen in front of a crowd.
Notice the last instruction. Jesus gives the life; the community helps remove the grave clothes. That is still how it works. Jesus brings new life, and his people help one another walk free.
Lazarus would die again someday. This sign points past itself to Jesus’ own resurrection, where death is defeated for good (1 Corinthians 15:20, 26). And it costs Jesus: from this day on, the leaders plot to kill him (11:53). He gives life to his friend, knowing it will cost his own.
Question 1 • Where do you need hope today?
Think about what feels dead, stuck, or past fixing: a relationship, a habit, a dream, a body, a loss that still aches. You do not need to know how God will answer. Martha did not know either. Bring it honestly.
Your answer to question 1
Question 2 • Why do you think Jesus wept before raising Lazarus?
Consider what his tears say about his love for this family, about how God feels toward death, and about how he sees our grief. Then consider what his tears give you permission to do.
Your answer to question 2
5. Looking back over eight weeks
Question 3 • Looking back over the last eight weeks, what has changed in your understanding of Jesus?
Take a few minutes to walk back through the study. Which week stayed with you? What did you understand about Jesus that you did not before?
Week 1 • The Light Has Come: the Word became flesh. Week 2 • Empty Jars, New Wine: he brings abundance. Week 3 • Born Again: following Jesus means becoming new. Week 4 • Living Water: he satisfies the deepest thirst. Week 5 • Do You Want to Get Well?: he sees the overlooked. Week 6 • The Bread of Life: only he truly satisfies. Week 7 • The Good Shepherd: he knows us by name. Week 8 • The Resurrection and the Life: he has power over death.
Your answer to question 3
An additional deeper group question
Answer with care. This is not about fixing people. It is about being the kind of community where people can be honest and be helped.
Practical application for this week
Grieve with hope. If you are carrying a loss, give yourself permission to be sad in Jesus’ presence. Read John 11:35 and pray honestly. If grief is heavy or lasting, reach out to a pastor, a trusted friend, or a counselor; that is wisdom, not weak faith.
Be a Martha. Practice saying both sentences this week: “Lord, if you had been here” and “Yet even now I know.” Bring Jesus your honest disappointment and your real trust at the same time.
6. Between now and Thursday
Use these four short readings in order, about 10–15 minutes each. If Thursday is close, combine the first two sittings and finish with the final reading before your group meets.
First sitting • See the setting
Read John 11:1–16 in the CSB. Notice what the sisters ask for, what Jesus says, and what the disciples fear. Write one observation about Jesus and one about the disciples.
Second sitting • Walk to the tomb
Read John 11:17–44 without stopping. Then reread verses 17–27. Mark everything Martha says. Prepare your answer to “Where do you need hope today?”
Third sitting • Read the background
Read Ezekiel 37:1–14 and 1 Corinthians 15:20–26. Notice what God promises about death and life. Then reread John 11:28–44 and prepare your answers to the second and third questions. Optional: read John 11:45–53 and Revelation 21:1–4.
Before Thursday’s group • Come ready
Reread John 11:17–44 and pray Lamentations 3:25–26, asking for patience and hope while you wait. Bring one insight about Jesus, one question, and one honest answer you are comfortable sharing.
The area where I need to trust Jesus more:
My prayer committing it to him:
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, you are the resurrection and the life. Thank you for weeping with us and for not leaving us in our graves. I bring you the places in my life that feel dead and the hopes I have stopped praying about. Give me Martha’s honest faith and Lazarus’s answer to your voice. Thank you for these eight weeks in your word and for the people I have walked them with. Keep us close to you until the day you wipe away every tear. Amen.
One insight or question to bring on Thursday
Sources: Small Group Schedule.txt, Week 8; CSB text of John 11 and cross-references (John 5:25; John 6:35; John 10:3, 11; John 20:31; Ezekiel 37:1–14; Lamentations 3:25–26; Romans 12:15; 1 Corinthians 15:20–26; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; Hebrews 4:15; Revelation 21:1–4). Schedule wording is preserved; explanations and prompts are study commentary.