11<\/strong>. and after that<\/em> ] and after<\/em> this<\/strong>. These words indicate a pause in the narrative.<\/p>\n Our friend Lazarus sleepeth<\/em> ] Better, Lazarus our friend is fallen asleep<\/strong>, or, is gone to rest<\/em>. Sleep as an image of death is common from the dawn of literature; but the Gospel has raised the expression from a figure to a fact. Comp. Mat 27:52<\/span>; Act 7:50<\/span>; Act 13:36<\/span>; 1Co 7:39<\/span>; 1Co 11:30 ; 1Co 15:6<\/span>; 1Co 15:18<\/span>; 1Th 4:13 ; 2Pe 3:4<\/span>. The thoroughly Christian term ‘cemetery’ (= sleeping-place) in the sense of a place of repose for the dead comes from the same Greek root. The exact time of Lazarus’ death cannot be determined, for we do not know how long Christ took in reaching Bethany. Christ calls him ‘ our<\/em> friend,’ as claiming the sympathy of the disciples, who had shewn unwillingness to return to Juda.<\/p>\n that I may awake him<\/em> ] This shews that no messenger has come to announce the death. Christ sees the death as He foresees the resurrection: comp. Joh 11:4<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n Lazarus sleepeth – <\/B>Is dead. The word sleep is applied to death,<\/P> <\/p>\n Joh 11:11-13<\/span><\/p>\n Our friend Lazarus sleepeth<\/em><\/p>\n Sweet sleep<\/strong><\/p>\n We have A SWEET RELATIONSHIP DECLARED. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Our friend. Behold here wondrous condescension. Our Lord does not turn to His disciples and say Your friend sleepeth, but places Himself side by side with them in their affection and says Our friend. It seems to me to teach so sweetly the blessed fact that Jesus is one with His people. It is equal to saying, Do you love Him? so do I. Let us meditate upon the friendship Christ has to His children, and in doing so I would notice <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> It is a real one. There is too much of superficial friendship abroad; plenty of the lip, but little of the heart. This is an age of shams; and among them, most hideous of the lot, is that of miscalled friendship. In the love of a saint to his Saviour there is a blessed reality. Whoever else he may not love with all his heart, his Saviour he must. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> In this friendship there are no secrets kept on either side. The old saying runs whisperers separate chief friends, but in close friendships nothing is hidden, so whispers have nothing to reveal. When Jesus says to anyone, My friend, He declares a friendship that ignores all secret keeping, for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. If there be a secret sin in the heart, if a fall in the life, O bear me witness, saints of God, that there is no peace for us until, like the woman of old, we have told Him all. Heavy burdens roll off the soul, and sweet ease flows into it by telling Jesus everything. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Jesus shows His friendship by helping in time of need. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Moreover, if a person says to me, my friend, I naturally expect he will show his friendship by calling in to see me; and sweet are the love visits that Jesus pays His friends. That disciple knows but little of the sweets of the religion of Jesus who knows but seldom what it is to hear his Lords knock, and who but seldom sups with his beloved in closest fellowship. <\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> Jesus is never ashamed of His friends. When once He has said My friend, He never retracts the sentence. There are many butterfly friends fluttering round us all, to be seen in the summer of prosperity, but conspicuous by their absence in the winter of adversity. <\/p>\n 6.<\/strong> That the friendship of Jesus lasts forever. The sweeter the friendship the more terrible the blow, that severs it. But severed it must be at last. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The friendship of Christ does not exempt from death. This dread reaper spares none. Death asks not whether the shock of corn is ripe for glory, or is as yet green, and unprepared for the sickle. He asks not whether his victim is a child of God or one of the worlds devotees. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Christ permits His friends to die in order to make manifest how completely He has conquered death. Suppose that, instead of tasting death, all Christs friends were, like Enoch, translated into glory; might not death boast and say, Aha! they dare not meet me in the field! Their Lord is afraid to put His conquest to the test. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Another reason why the friends of Jesus die is that they may be brought into conformity with their Lord. It may seem strange to some of your ears; but I believe there are many here who would rather prefer to die than otherwise, in order that in everything they might be conformed to their Master. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> In sleep there is a rest from pain. There is rest from pain in death. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> In sleep there is a rest from care. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Sleeping implies waking. (A. G. Brown.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The friendship of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Amiableness, or having those properties which are calculated to attract the heart. We may be grateful to those we cannot esteem, and admire those we cannot love; but to make a friend there must be something lovely. This exists in Christ in the highest degree. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Power of wisdom to guide, of strength to support and defend; of riches to help. These all exist in their fulness in Christ. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Faithfulness to keep our secrets and to fulfil His promises. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Tenderness. Friendship is like a foreign plant which requires delicate treatment. It shrinks from whatever is rough and unfeeling, and cannot confide in rudeness. <\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> Unchangeableness. Christ is not a summer friend, who, like the butterfly, flutters round us while the sun is shining, but retires when the sun has gone. He is a friend horn for adversity. He is the same today, etc. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> He sympathizes with them, as one of them sharing their sorrows. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> He is their abiding companion. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> He has paid their debts, ransomed their persons, reconciled them to God at the expense of His own life. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> He has purchased for them an inheritance incorruptible, etc. <\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> He has fitted up mansions as the eternal residences of the bodies and souls of His people. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The composure of soul which the Lord gives to His people in the hour of death, Mark the perfect man, etc. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The temporary cessation of the powers of the body to recruit it for fresh service on the resurrection morn (Isa 26:19<\/span>). (J. H. Stewart, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The awakening Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n Jesus awakes men out of the sleep of IGNORANCE, to give them intellectual life. His teaching <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Awakes the power to think. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Strengthens the thinking powers. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Affords food for thought. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Men are dead in sin. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Christs call awakes the soul, and Christs power gives it life. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Christ supports, develops, and perfects this new life. <\/p>\n The Christian in life and in death<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The friend of Jesus. Expressing ideas of <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Acquaintance. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Endearment. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The friend of Jesus friends. Adding thoughts of <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Social intercourse. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Loving brotherhood. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Withdrawn from the ordinary activities of life, as the mind is during the hours of slumber. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Possessed of a real, though different existence, as the mind never ceases to be active during the hours of repose. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Certain to awake refreshed after the period of rest has terminated, as mind and body do when night is passed. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Death as sleep<\/strong><\/p>\n Estius well remarks, Sleeping, in the sense of dying, is only applied to men, because of the hope of the resurrection. We read no such thing of brutes. The use of the figure is so common in Scripture, that it is almost needless to give references (see Deu 31:16<\/span>; Dan 12:2<\/span>; Mat 27:52<\/span>; Act 7:60; <\/span>Act 13:36<\/span>; 1Co 7:39; 1Co 11:30; <\/span>1Co 15:6-18<\/span>; 1Th 4:13-14<\/span>). But it is a striking fact that the figure is frequently used by great heathen writers, showing clearly that the traditions of a life after death existed even among the heathen. Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Catullus, supply instances. However, the Christian believer is the only one who can truly regard death as sleep–that is, as a healthy, refreshing thing, which can do him no harm. Many among ourselves, perhaps, are not aware that the figure of speech exists among us in full force in the word cemetery, applied to burial ground. That word is drawn from the very Greek verb which our Lord uses here. It is literally a sleeping place. (Bishop Ryle.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Death has the advantage of sleep<\/strong><\/p>\n For sleep is only the parenthesis, while death is the period of our cares and trials. (M. Henry.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A beautiful death<\/strong><\/p>\n All Wales, when I was there, was filled with the story of the dying experiences of Frances Ridley Havergal. She got her feet wet standing on the ground preaching temperance and the gospel to a group of boys and men, went home with a chill, and congestion set in, and they told her she was very dangerously ill. I thought so, she said, but it is really too good to be true that I am going. Doctor, do you really think I am going? Yes. Today? Probably. She said: Beautiful, splendid to be so near the gate of heaven! Then, after a spasm of pain, she nestled down in the pillows and said, There, now; it is all over–blessed rest. Then she tried to sing, and she struck one glad note, high note of praise to Christ, but could sing only one word, He, and then all was still. She finished it in heaven. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Sleep and death<\/strong><\/p>\n The angel of sleep and the angel of death reclined at eventide on a hill overlooking the abodes of men. As night came on, one rose from his mossy couch and scattered some seeds of slumber. The zephyrs bore them away to human dwellings, and presently the sick man forgot his pain, the mourner his sorrow, the poor his cares. Oh, what joy, exclaimed the angel of sleep, thus to do good unseen! The other looked at him in sadness, and a tear gathered in his dark eye as he said: Alas, that I can have no thanks! Earth calls me its enemy and destroyer. Nay, my brother, answered sleep, in the morning men praise me as their friend, and will not the good in the resurrection morn praise and bless thee also as a benefactor? Are we not brothers and messengers of one Father? <\/p>\n Verse 11<\/span>. Lazarus sleepeth<\/B><\/I>] It was very common among the Jews to express death<\/I> by sleep<\/I>; and the expression, falling<\/I> asleep – sleeping with their fathers<\/I>, &c., were in great use among them. The Hebrews probably used this form of speech to signify their belief in the immortality<\/I> of the soul<\/I>, and the resurrection<\/I> of the body<\/I>.<\/P> <\/P> It is certain that our Lord received no intimation of Lazarus’s death from any person, and that he knew it through that power by which he knows all things.<\/P> <\/p>\n There is such an analogy between death and sleep, that there is nothing more ordinary than to express death by sleep in Scripture, Deu 31:16<\/span>; 2Sa 7:12<\/span>; 1Ki 1:21<\/span>; 2Ki 20:21<\/span>; Job 7:21<\/span>; 14:12<\/span>; Dan 12:2<\/span>, and in a multitude of other texts, both in the Old Testament and in the New; so as it was evident our Saviour meant he was dead, which he knew as he was God, though as yet he had received no relation of it from the friends of the deceased. <\/P> But I go<\/I> (saith our Saviour) to raise him up again from the dead, which he calls awaking him; pursuing the former metaphor, where he had compared death to a sleep. <\/P> <\/p>\n 11-16. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;but I go that I may wake him out of sleep<\/B>Illustrious title!”Our friend<\/I> Lazarus.” To Abraham only<\/I> is itaccorded in the Old Testament, and not till after his death,<\/I>(2Ch 20:7<\/span>; Isa 41:8<\/span>),to which our attention is called in the New Testament (Jas2:23<\/span>). When Jesus came in the flesh, His forerunner applied thisname, in a certain sense, to himself (Joh3:29<\/span>); and into the same fellowship the Lord’s chosen disciplesare declared to have come (Joh15:13-15<\/span>). “The phrase here employed, “our friendLazarus,” means more than “he whom Thou<\/I> lovest”in Joh 11:3<\/span>, for it impliesthat Christ’s affection was reciprocated<\/I> by Lazarus”[LAMPE]. Our Lord had beentold only that Lazarus was “sick.” But the change which histwo days’ delay had produced is here tenderly alluded to. Doubtless,His spirit was all the while with His dying, and now dead “friend.”The symbol of “sleep” for death<\/I> is common to alllanguages, and familiar to us in the Old Testament. In the NewTestament, however, a higher meaning is put into it, in relation tobelievers in Jesus (see on 1Th 4:14<\/span>),a sense hinted at, and clearly, in Ps17:15<\/span> [LUTHARDT]; andthe “awaking out of sleep” acquires a corresponding sensefar transcending bare resuscitation.<\/P><\/p>\n These things said he<\/strong>,…. In answer to his disciples, and made a pause.<\/p>\n And after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth<\/strong>; meaning, that he was dead; in which sense the word is often used in the Old Testament, and in the common dialect of the Jews, and frequently in their writings; and especially it is so used of good men: and it is an observation of theirs b, that<\/p>\n “it is usual to say of the righteous, that there is no death in them, , “but sleep”;”<\/p>\n [See comments on Mt 9:24]<\/span>,<\/p>\n [See comments on 1Co 15:18]<\/span>,<\/p>\n [See comments on 1Co 15:20]<\/span>,<\/p>\n [See comments on 1Th 4:13]<\/span>,<\/p>\n [See comments on 1Th 4:14]<\/span>;<\/p>\n but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep<\/strong>; that is, to raise him from the dead, for, the resurrection of the dead is expressed by awaking; see Ps 17:15<\/span>; which for Christ to do, was as easy as to awake a man out of natural sleep: these words respecting Lazarus’s sleeping and awaking, express both the omniscience and omnipotence of Christ; his omniscience, that he should know that Lazarus was dead; when at such a distance from him; and his omnipotence, that he could raise him from the dead; and yet his great modesty to signify it in, such covert language, though not difficult to be understood.<\/p>\n b Gloss in T. Hieros. Celaim in En Yaacob, fol. 4. 4.<\/p>\n Is fallen asleep <\/B> (<\/SPAN><\/span>). Perfect passive indicative of <\/SPAN><\/span>, old verb to put to sleep. Common as a metaphor for death like our cemetery.<\/P> I go <\/B> (<\/SPAN><\/span>). Futuristic use of the present tense as in 14:2<\/span>.<\/P> That I may awake him out of sleep <\/B> ( <\/SPAN><\/span>). Purpose clause with <\/SPAN><\/span> and the first aorist active subjunctive of <\/SPAN><\/span>, a late compound (, <\/SPAN><\/span>, sleep) for the older <\/SPAN><\/span>, here only in the N.T. See Job 14:12<\/span> where also it occurs along with <\/SPAN><\/span>. <\/P> <\/p>\n Sleepeth [] <\/SPAN><\/span>. More correctly, as Rev., hath fallen asleep. See on Act 7:60<\/span>; 2Pe 3:4<\/span>. <\/P> Awake him out of sleep [ ] <\/SPAN><\/span>. Only here in the New Testament.<\/P> <\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n 1 ) “These things said he: <\/strong> (tauta eipen) “He said these things,” about light and darkness, after His disciples had impulsively reminded Him of the hate of the Jews and their continual resolve to kill Him, Joh 11:8<\/span>; Joh 5:16<\/span>; Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I.<\/strong><\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>A SOLEMN FACT SUGGESTED. Christs friends die. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>WE HAVE IN THIS TEXT A VERY CHEERING DESCRIPTION. Our friend sleepeth. Not our friend is dead. <\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>JESUS IS THE FRIEND OF HIS PEOPLE. Human friendship is the choicest of earthly privileges. How much more the friendship of Christ! (Joh 16:14-15<\/span>). Note the qualities of a true friend. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>THE SERVICES WHICH CHRIST DISCHARGES FOR HIS FRIENDS. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>TO THE FRIENDS OF CHRIST DEATH HAS CHANGED ITS NATURE. They cannot die, they only sleep. The emblem expresses <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>MORAL INSENSIBILITY, to give them spiritual life. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>INDIFFERENCE, to give them a life of usefulness. (Weekly Pulpit.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>IN LIFE. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>IN DEATH. Asleep. <\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n