Lazarus and Jairus' Daughter - Are They Sleeping or Dead?

Video

Summary

When Jesus says that Jairus’ daughter is “sleeping”, and says that Lazarus (the brother of Mary and Martha) is “sleeping”, well, why? Were they sleeping, or were they dead? Why would Jesus put things like this?

Timestamps

0:00 0:00 - Intro and outline
02:01 02:01 - Q: If Jesus said they were sleeping, but they were dead, isn’t there a contradiction?
04:05 04:05 - Answering point by point
04:30 04:30 - First of all, the Lazarus of Luke 16 is not the same Lazarus as John 11
09:28 09:28 - Jesus’ describing Lazarus as “sleeping” in John 11
19:03 19:03 - Jesus’ describing Jairus’ daughter as “sleeping” in Matthew 9
23:13 23:13 - It is not a euphemism this time, but something completely different
42:30 42:30 - What of Hebrews 9:27?
01:00:57 01:00:57 - Summary and outro

Content

Q: If Jesus said they were sleeping, but they were dead, isn’t there a contradiction?

Hebrews 9:27 says that each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, but:

In John 11:11 Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus is sleeping, but then when they say that he will soon get better, then Jesus clarifies that he is dead.
Also, in Matthew 9:24, Jesus says that the girl isn’t dead, she’s only asleep, but in this case he doesn’t further clarify that she’s actually dead.

My question is why does he say that they’re sleeping instead of saying that they’re dead, and why does he clarify that Lazarus is dead but not the girl?

Also, in Luke 16 when Jesus tells about the rich man and Lazarus, he doesn’t mention sleeping: he says that they died.

Don’t Hebrews 9:27 and Luke 16 go against the idea that they’re sleeping?

Answering point by point

There is a lot to unpack here! Some good questions.

I’m going to go piece by piece. This got rather long, but hopefully it will hit all the facets.

First of all, the Lazarus of Luke 16 is not the same Lazarus as John 11

Interpretation > Challenges > Different people in the Bible can have the same name Parables > How do you know if something is a parable or actually happened?

Let’s start with one of the easier things to address. Just like today, in antiquity, plenty of people shared names. So it is that we have:

Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene (among other Mary’s mentioned in the NT)
John the Baptist (the Son of Elizabeth and Zechariah) and John the brother of James (who was one of the 12 Apostles)
James the brother of Jesus (who wrote the book of James), James the brother of John (who was also one of the 12 Apostles, alongside his brother), and James the son of Alphaeus (yet another of the 12 Apostles)

One might go on. The point is, just like today, it was not all that uncommon for different people to have the same name. This can get confusing rather quickly.

And so, of course, while it is completely reasonable to line up the two people named Lazarus, the shared name alone is not proof of them being the same person. In fact, there is some evidence to the contrary:

In John 12:3, we are told that Lazarus’ sister Mary anointed Jesus’s feet with nard, an expensive type of perfume. Additionally, John 11:19 says “many Jews” came to comfort the sisters in the loss of their brother. From these verses and others, it is apparent that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were relatively affluent and well-connected.
But the Lazarus of Luke 16 is a beggar—perhaps the lowest social station possible.

So quite simply, from the Bible itself, it seems unlikely that these two men are the same person.

Sidenote

I should also note that some people think the account of Abraham and Lazarus in Luke 16 is just a parable (rather than a recounting of something that actually happened). It’s a bit tangential, but I believe this to be decidedly wrong, as we are given no indication that this is merely a parable.

Here’s what my mentor has to say on the subject:

Quote from Ichthys

Jesus most certainly does not say that it is a parable, although that is His practice when engaging in parables. Also, what other parable of our Lord’s can you cite where historical people with definite names are employed? When Jesus is using a parable, the gospels generally say so. On the other hand, parables do not attribute definite historical actions to definite and precise historical people whom we know from elsewhere in the Bible as having done things they actually did not do. Finally, even were it a parable, that would still have to mean that the circumstances of the parable could not and would not teach theological error (cf. Mark 3:23-27 where Jesus’ speaking “in parables” recounts an actual historical situation; Satan is certainly real and not a myth, nor is any of the information given there about the devil to be explained away).

Jesus’ describing Lazarus as “sleeping” in John 11

Sleep > As a euphimism for death Interpretation > Challenges > Different cultures use different idioms, metaphors, and so on Interpretation > Sensitivity to the cultural context of the audience to whom the text was written Euphimism > Use in scripture

It is very clear from John 11 that Lazarus was dead; unlike in the Matthew 9 passage (which we will get to in a moment), there can be no doubt whatsoever here on the part of anyone. For in John 11:17, we hear that Lazarus had already been entombed for four days before Jesus arrived in Bethany.

So why then did Jesus employ the language of sleeping instead of death? Quite simply, he was speaking euphemistically. We still do this nowadays as well. For example, in English we might say someone “passed away” or “is no longer with us” or “went to be with Jesus” rather than bluntly saying that they died. But all of these things clearly are getting at the concept of death.

An on-topic quote from my mentor:

Quote from Ichthys

Now, to address the specifics of your question [about the false doctrine of so-called “soul sleep”], I believe that the major part of the issue (and indeed the essential grounds for the origin of it historically) is the use of the euphemism “sleep” for those who have died. A euphemism, of course, is a circumlocution or certain phraseology that is “more pleasant” or “less offensive” than giving something its most direct and abrupt name. This is why the veterinarian says, “I sorry to have to tell you that your cat ‘has passed’”, instead of saying “Your cat is dead”. And if we feel compunctions about being direct in the case of the death of somebody’s pet, how much more inappropriate would it be for us to say of someone’s family member “He’s dead.” In fact, the use of euphemism is a Spirit-inspired device. Note for example the avoidance of direct terms for sexual and other biological functions in the Pentateuch. And in terms of death, our Lord’s example will stand as one which cannot be denied. For He told the disciples, “Lazarus is sleeping”, whereas He was being appropriately kind in using this standard biblical euphemism for death (Jn.11:11-15).

All this is a long way of saying that when people in the Bible say “he/she is asleep”, they often mean “he/she is dead”, without there being any conclusion to be drawn from the nature of the euphemism about the current state of the individual – and rightly too, since we cannot actually see the person in heaven (or torments as the case may be). The problem of course is that in English we do not use the same idiom. Our euphemisms for death are numerous, but it is not our practice to say that a person is “asleep”. In our cultural view, that would seem cruel (rather than kind) because it would seem to imply that they could be “awakened” when in fact of course they can no longer be (viewing things from our secular and materialistic perspective, at any rate). However, here we do see the superiority of the biblical idiom, for Jesus does say He is going to “wake up” Lazarus – and so He does! That, of course, was a miracle that has rarely been reproduced in the history of the world. But it does show that behind the word “sleep” used in the biblical euphemism for death, there lies the possibility of awakening – not of this physical body in its present corrupt state (aside from uncommon miracles as in the case of Lazarus), but of the body transformed in resurrection at the return of Jesus Christ. We see the promise latent in the euphemism “sleep” in Martha’s words to the Lord: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day”, in response to Jesus’ words “Your brother will rise again” (Jn.11:23-24). But please note that the word “rise”, Greek anistemi, while it is the standard word for resurrection is also the standard word for getting up and waking up from sleep. So whether we are talking about genuine sleep, or miraculous resuscitation of the body as with Lazarus, or the actual resurrection and transformation of the body at our Lord’s return, in all of these cases we have “sleep” followed by “rising”. That is to say, unquestionably it is the body which sleeps and then rises. But when we die we are “out of [this] body and face to face with the Lord” (1Cor.5:6; cf. Phil.1:20-24). The euphemism of sleep is thus clearly and entirely directed to the body, not the spirit (the “soul”, an unfortunate translation of the Hebrew nephesh and the Greek pscyhe is really where the two meet at present, “the heart”; see the link: “The dichotomy of man”).

Because we in our culture do not use sleep as a euphemism for death in the same way their culture did, it can be harder for us to pick up on this when we read English translations and “think from the English worldview”, so to speak. But in fact, to properly grasp the meaning of the Bible, sometimes we must endeavor to put ourselves in the shoes of a first-century Hebrew-speaking person from Judea (for example), and then read the Bible from that perspective. You may hear this termed “culture-sensitive interpretation” or something of the sort. It’s not that the truth ever changes or anything of the sort; rather, it is simply that we must “do our homework” when it comes to interpreting the Bible according to the audience to whom it was written.

And when we do that, hopefully it becomes clear why Jesus’ words here are no contradiction. For we can see from John 11:13 that in saying “Lazarus sleeps” he had in fact very much meant in saying this that Lazarus was dead. That is quite literally what John 11:13 says!

Jesus’ describing Jairus’ daughter as “sleeping” in Matthew 9

Interpretation > Sensitivity to the cultural context of the audience to whom the text was written

This passage appears across the Synoptic gospels: Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56. It can often be helpful to read all the gospels in parallel to see how the same events are described by the different writers.

Nonetheless, we’ll limit ourselves to the Matthew account here, since with respect to this question of why Jesus said the girl was “sleeping”, there isn’t much difference.

First of all, some context:

The people forming the crowd at Jairus’ house were, in all likelihood, “professional mourners”. The concept may seem a bit foreign to us in our time, but the idea is similar to hiring a pianist to play hymns at a loved one’s funeral, or something of the sort.
These people were, to put it somewhat crudely, “there for the money”. They would have been hired to perform the culturally-expected funerary proceedings, which meant a lack of decorum on their part ought not shock us as if they were family members proper, sad as that is to say.

This is why these people mock Jesus’ statement in Matthew 9:24. They would be thinking something along the lines of:

We were just hired to do the funeral things for this girl, and now this joker shows up and says she’s not even dead, but only asleep?! Puh-lease mister, gimme a break (*eye roll*). Just let us get back to work so we can collect our payment.

So this is the “setting of the scene” for this passage here in Matthew.

It is not a euphemism this time, but something completely different

Interpretation > NT Principles > "Jesus' time had not yet come" Jesus > Intentionally avoided celebrity Interpretation > Inferences have their place when they only go so far as the evidence allows

It might be tempting to think Jesus was merely using sleep as a euphemism for death here too (just like in John 11), but there are some issues with taking that approach:

First, as you are quite right in pointing out, Jesus never clarifies to say the girl was in fact dead. That would have been a very natural thing to do when the crowd began to mock him in verse 24. After all, if he really did mean in saying that the girl was sleeping that she was dead, why would he hide it then?
Second, note that Jesus shoos the people away. He kicks them out of the house, and makes them wait outside. If there were nothing else going on here—and he were merely speaking euphemistically—then why would he do this?

So what was going on here, then?

In my opinion, the best best way to interpret this passage is that Jesus knew full well that the girl was dead, but yet He said she was sleeping, and very intentionally never clarified whether it was a euphemism or not. (Culturally, as we have said, it was in fact a euphemism in common use, but people here would still have wondered if He was being literal or not, especially when the girl actually came walking out in short order). There are two reasons for this that I can see:

Jesus (well, more specifically, his miracles) drew immense crowds. But people drawn in in by the “shiny things” and spectacle of it all would merely make it harder for Jesus to accomplish his ministry (culminating in the cross, where he paid for the sins of us all). The phenomenon can be clearly seen in, for example, Mark 1:40-45. You might also compare Matthew 9:30, Matthew 12:16, and so on. The basic idea is that Jesus, as a general rule, wanted to keep his miracles veiled and something decidedly less than shouted from the rooftops to avoid the celebrity of it all, since it interfered with the Father’s Will for Him.
Even aside from his own celebrity, consider the life this poor girl would lead if Jesus raised her from the dead in an unambiguous sort of way in front of a large crowd. Himself aside, it is quite likely that He avoided doing this to spare her and her family the sheer amount of interference this would cause in the rest of their lives.

If Jesus insisted she was sleeping, sends everyone out, and then she appears a few minutes later, rumors take over and do the rest of the work. No doubt the girl and her family would receive some attention if people thought Jesus had miraculously healed her from very serious illness, but on the other hand, Jesus did that reasonably often with plenty of other people too. So after a time, the nosiness of others would die down, and they could live in peace. But if He unambiguously raised her from the dead in front of all? That’s a wee bit more of a thing.

There are only two other instances of Jesus raising people from the dead aside from Jairus’ daughter (this passage). One we’ve already talked about: the raising of Lazarus in John 11. The other is the widow of Nain’s son in Luke 7:11-17. One might fairly ask why then, if He might wish to avoid fame for himself and others as a matter of practicality (as I just argued for), did Jesus not try to play off these two as well (that is imply in some way that He was not actually raising people from the dead)? Some points:

In the case of the widow of Nain’s son, Jesus raised him during the funeral procession. No plausible deniability there, right? And so too with Lazarus, who had already been entombed for four days before Jesus got to Bethany, like we discussed above. So one obvious reason why Jesus didn’t do some “they’re only sleeping” business in these cases is because it would simply be impossible.
Aside from that, there is also the fact that these were both adult men. Even with interfering busybodies (or worse) bothering them on account of the miracle, they would be capable of warding off anything problematic from them and their families (cf. John 12:10—this is no mere speculation on my part). But a young girl? Not so much. Especially given the relatively higher degree of vulnerability women were forced to contend with in antiquity.

I will acknowledge that much of what I have just said is based on inference and a degree of speculation on my part (that is, it is not as if the Bible says these things very explicitly). However, I do believe this is more than just an opinion—I believe this is the actual truth of it, indirect as it may be. For I see little other explanation that satisfies all the elements at once without having other problems. Jesus sending the people out especially makes little sense under most other possible interpretations.

I should note that some people might be offended that this line of thinking suggests that Jesus intentionally misdirected the beliefs of others (critics would call it lying). To that I would ask what they think of the actions of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:15-22 (and also what God thought about the actions of the midwives in that context), and also the actions of Rahab in Joshua 2 (and cf. the New Testament praise of Rahab’s actions in Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25). No doubt this teaching will ruffle some feathers, but part of growing up spiritually is learning to distinguish moral virtue from legalistic rules that have the appearance of holiness, but are in fact incompatible with true righteousness.

Sidenote

If you want to read additional support for the interpretation I put forth, you might see here or here.

(Those links will take you to specific locations if you use a Chromium based browser, like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Otherwise, search those webpages for the word “sleep”, and you’ll find the relevant sections).

What of Hebrews 9:27?

Interpretation > Apparent contradictions > Hebrews 9:27 says people can only die once, but resuscitated people die twice Resuscitation > Is different from resurrection

If Hebrews 9:27 says that people die once, then what of Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter? Aren’t they dying twice?

Let me say, it gets even worse than just these two. What about the people mentioned in Matthew 27:50-53? Even more, if you take the two witnesses of Revelation (cf. Revelation 11:3-10) to be Moses and Elijah like I do (and there is a strong case for this, although that is ultimately a topic for a different time), then they will be walking around smiting bad guys with style some few thousand years after they last walked the Earth. Yet they are certainly said to be dead after the beast kills them (Revelation 11:7). So what gives?

It will probably make skeptics scoff, but there is death, and then there is death. Biblically speaking, there is a difference between “resuscitation” (as was the case for Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter, and all the other examples also mentioned above), and “resurrection” (in the manner of 1 Corinthians 15). Dead people are resuscitated. Dead people are resurrected into their eternal bodies.

I’m sure that sounds all sorts of hand-wavy, but there it is. Put simply, all those who are resuscitated are not dead in the eternal sense of never again walking the earth in mortal bodies of fleshly corruption. From the human perspective, dead people are dead people. But with God’s perfect foreknowledge and foreordination of all things, only those whom He does not foreknow as being resuscitated are positionally dead in the sense of being in the state they shall be in until Judgement Day. The two “types of dead” really are quite different, then, even if human beings can never tell the difference.

If you’d like to read some additional Q&As on the same general question:

Quote from Ichthys

Question #4:

Someone had asked if Lazarus (whom Jesus raised from the dead) had died twice, and if so, how does one reconcile that with this verse?

Hebrews 9:27 | KJV

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Response #4:

Lazarus really was an unusual case - but not unprecedented: Jesus also raised the widow’s son and the rich ruler’s daughter, and Elijah and Elisha also will have what I would call a “resuscitation” to their credit during the Tribulation (Rev.11). Hebrews 9:27 was of course written in full knowledge of all these cases as Hebrews 11:35 makes clear: “[by faith] Women received back their dead, raised to life again” (and indeed, Paul himself resuscitated a young man who had fallen out of a window in Ephesus).

The way I would look at Hebrews 9:27, which does not contradict these miracles and is not ignorant of them, is that in all of these cases there was indeed still a final physical death. Therefore nothing can or could ever stand in the way of the coming “judgment” - save Christ being judged in our place. Thus the examples of those who were temporarily brought back to life actually confirm Hebrews 9:27, because even those who benefitted from the most amazing miracle of resuscitation from the dead could not even so avoid the appointment we all have with a final, ultimate end to the physical life of this corrupt body we now inhabit. Only through the resurrection by virtue of our faith in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life do we avoid the last judgment which leads to the second death and instead pass on to life eternal in Jesus Christ.

In Him with whom we shall live forever, the One who was judged for us, our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Bob L.

Quote from Ichthys

Question #3:

Concerning those who were raised momentarily in Matthew 27:53, how do we reconcile that with this Hebrews 9:27? How was it that these people had to die a 2nd death on this earth, although the Bible teaches us we die once.

Hebrews 9:27 | KJV

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Response #3:

This verse is certainly true for the vast majority of mankind. These very few people constitute an exception – although it’s not much of an exception since, following resuscitation, they again fell into the same category of us all in regard to Hebrews 9:27, eventually facing a physical death from which there would be no more reprieve – and that is the real point of Hebrews 9:27, not that we don’t have to die more than once, but that we are going to exit these corrupt physical bodies eventually and then face God’s judgment – either the judgment of the righteous or the judgment of the unrighteous, depending on our attitude towards Jesus Christ in this life – and there is absolutely nothing we can do about these facts (so we best draw the right conclusions).

Certainly, the widow’s son whom Elijah brought back, the Shunammite’s son whom Elisha brought back, Tabitha, whom Peter brought back, and the boy who fell from the window in Ephesus whom Paul brought back are surely not around any more. By all indications they went on to live normal lives after being brought back from the dead, and then died physically as it is appointed. Whereas those who are resurrected can never die again (and there was nothing in any of these or similar cases to indicate that the physical, earthly body of these so resuscitated was changed in any way other than the miracle of resuscitation). There is also the even rarer case of transmutation. Enoch (and so far Elijah) did not meet with physical death in the normal way, yet they will be resurrected and appear before the judgment seat of Christ the same as we all will. Finally, Paul’s statement in Hebrews 9:27 was made after all of the events discussed above, and from that point forward was, has been, and will continue to be true without further exceptions so far as we can tell from scripture.

In Jesus with who we shall live forever in the glory of eternal bodies that can never die.

Bob L.

Transcript (click to show)

Video/audio transcript

00:00 00:00 - hey guys this evening I’m going to be talking about Lazarus in John chapter 11 and gyrus his daughter in Matthew
00:09 00:09 - chapter 9 uh as well as a few other topics as we go through Jesus’s use of sleeping as a metaphor or a euphemism
00:18 00:18 - for death and kind of what the differences in these two situations are so here’s the outline of the points that
00:25 00:25 - I will be going over here so first we’re going to kind of start with some questions that I got from a person I
00:31 00:31 - know I kind of sparked my research into this topic and then we’re going to kind of go through those Point by Point first
00:37 00:37 - we’re going to talk about how the Lazarus of Luke chapter 16 so this is the story with
00:43 00:43 - Lazarus Lazarus and the rich man and Abraham uh is not actually the same as the Lazarus who Jesus raises from the
00:50 00:50 - dead in John chapter 11 then we’re going to be talking about how uh when Jesus describes Lazarus as sleeping in John 11
00:58 00:58 - he is using a euphemism there um that is he’s kind of rather than coming right out and saying he’s dead uh he’s using a
01:06 01:06 - turn of speech kind of similar to how we would say someone has passed away or is no longer with us or something um and
01:13 01:13 - then in Matthew chapter 9 uh when Jesus says the gyrus daughter is sleeping I’m going to argue that it’s actually a
01:20 01:20 - little bit different he’s not using it quite so euphemistically in this case but he has a little bit more of a
01:26 01:26 - different purpose there and we’ll get to that once we get to this part of uh the video today um and then finally
01:33 01:33 - um I’m going to be talking about Hebrews 9:27 which talks about how it is appointed once for man to die and after
01:40 01:40 - that comes the judgment and so well in these cases where Lazarus and gyrus his daughter were raised from the dead and
01:47 01:47 - there are some other examples in the Bible too well what of this when we think about uh it is appointed once for
01:54 01:54 - man to die well aren’t these people dying twice so we’re going to kind of examine that question as it pertains to
02:00 02:00 - all of this as well so first off we’re going to be going over the questions that my friend
02:09 02:09 - had so uh Hebrews 9:27 as we just talked about at the end of that intro bit there says that each person is destined to die
02:17 02:17 - once and after that comes judgment but in John 11:1 Jesus tells his disciples that
02:25 02:25 - Lazarus is sleeping but then when they say well then he’ll soon get better you know as people sleep when they get sick
02:31 02:31 - do Jesus then actually clarifies that he’s dead so that’s verse 13 that Jesus well that says that that’s what Jesus
02:38 02:38 - meant um also in Matthew chapter 9 verse 24 Jesus says that the girl um who is gyrus his daughter if you compare in the
02:48 02:48 - other synoptic gospels isn’t dead but she’s only asleep but in this case he actually doesn’t further clarify like no
02:55 02:55 - one asks him and he doesn’t insist that she’s dead um and so this is actually probably more complicated of the two as
03:01 03:01 - we’ll get to um but the question that my friend had here was well why does he say that they’re sleeping instead of just
03:07 03:07 - saying that they’re dead and why does he clarify that Lazarus is dead but not the girl so why is there a difference there
03:14 03:14 - in his actions and then also um was asked here in Luke chapter 16 uh when Jesus tells about the rich man in
03:24 03:24 - Lazarus he doesn’t mention sleeping at all he says that they died and so there is a man named Lazarus in Luke chapter
03:30 03:30 - 16 um and there’s a man named Lazarus in John 11 and so I’m going to be arguing uh when we get there in a sec those
03:36 03:36 - actually aren’t the same person and so that’s kind of how we handle this one and then finally I’m just going to talk
03:42 03:42 - a little bit you know this this idea in Hebrews chapter nine uh that well when people die they die once doesn’t that
03:49 03:49 - kind of go against the idea that they’re sleeping here so um you know that both of these passages Lazarus in John chap
03:56 03:56 - 11 and gyrus his daughter in Matthew chapter n kind of the passages we’re going to be looking at this evening as
04:02 04:02 - we consider this question here so I’m going to kind of split the response here down Point by Point um
04:13 04:13 - kind of a lot to unpack so there’s some some good questions in fact quite a few of them here but they’re kind of on
04:18 04:18 - different tracks and so I’m going to try to tackle it section by section here piece by piece um so this did get kind
04:25 04:25 - of long but hopefully I will manage to hit all of the questions that we just went over there
04:33 04:33 - so first thing that I’m going to be starting with is that the Lazarus of Luke 16 is not the same as the Lazarus
04:40 04:40 - of John chap 11 just like today in Antiquity plenty of people shared names so it is that we have Mary the mother of
04:50 04:50 - Jesus and Mary Magdalene among all the other Marys mentioned in the New Testament of which there are several
04:56 04:56 - others John the Baptist the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah and John the brother of James who was one of the 12
05:04 05:04 - apostles and then James the brother of Jesus uh he’s the one who wrote the book of James also James the brother of John
05:12 05:12 - who was also one of the TW Apostles alongside his brother and James the son of alaus who’s yet another of the twel
05:19 05:19 - Apostles so two of the twel apostles were named James and then Jesus’s brother was also named James one might
05:26 05:26 - go on these are not the only examples of people sharing names in the New Testament but the point here is just
05:32 05:32 - like today it was not all that uncommon for different people to have the same name this means things can get confusing
05:39 05:39 - rather quickly and so kind of the upshot of this is that while it’s completely reasonable to line up the two people
05:46 05:46 - named Lazarus the shared name alone is not proof of them being the same person in fact we kind of have some evidence to
05:54 05:54 - the contrary in John 12:3 we are told that lazarus’s Sister Mary anointed Jesus’s feet with nard an expensive type
06:02 06:02 - of perfume additionally John 11: 19 says that many Jews came to comfort the sisters that is Mary and Martha in the
06:12 06:12 - loss of their brother from these verses and others it’s apparent that Mary Martha and Lazarus were relatively
06:17 06:17 - affluent and well connected but the Lazarus of Luke chapter 16 in the story with the rich
06:23 06:23 - man and Abraham well he’s a beggar perhaps the lowest social station possible
06:30 06:30 - so quite simply from the Bible itself it seems unlikely that these two men are the same person and that’s again kind of
06:36 06:36 - just because of all the context clues we have in John chapter 11 John chapter 12 and everywhere else that Mary and Martha
06:43 06:43 - and Lazarus are mentioned uh they kind of seem to present as coming from a relatively wealthy and well-connected
06:50 06:50 - family in Jewish Society but the beggar of John chapter 16 or sorry of Luke chapter 16 just doesn’t seem to fit that
06:58 06:58 - mold um and so among other things of the beggar of Luke chapter 16 we have no mention of sisters there either I and
07:06 07:06 - it’s apparent that the siblings were rather close so you know that’s kind of another lacking uh point in context in
07:12 07:12 - favor of viewing the two lazarus’s as being too different and so uh before we close out you know that is what I think
07:19 07:19 - on this subject just also say here that some people actually think that the account of Abraham and Lazarus in Luke
07:26 07:26 - chapter 16 is just a parable rather than counting something that actually happened uh it’s a little bit tangential
07:33 07:33 - but I actually believe this to be decidedly wrong is we’re given no indication that this is merely a parable
07:39 07:39 - um as if Jesus was just using this as an illustration but it wasn’t actually you know something that was like a
07:44 07:44 - historical reality or something that actually happened uh so um here’s what my mentor has to say on the subject so
07:51 07:51 - this is from ich this.com which is an online Bible Teaching Ministry um but he says that Jesus most certainly does not
07:59 07:59 - say that it is a parable although that’s his practice when engaging in Parables also what other parable of our
08:06 08:06 - Lords can you site where historical people with definite names are employed when Jesus is using a parable the
08:12 08:12 - gospels generally say so on the other hand Parables do not attribute definite historical actions to definite and
08:20 08:20 - precise historical people whom we know from elsewhere in the Bible is having done things they actually did not do so
08:26 08:26 - that would kind of be Abraham in this example um Abraham obviously is someone who we know quite a bit about from the
08:33 08:33 - Old Testament but if you were to argue that this is just a parable you’d have to be arguing that Jesus was using
08:39 08:39 - Abraham who was a real historical figure and whom we have a good bit of information about to illustrate a point
08:45 08:45 - that wasn’t actually true just kind of doesn’t make a lot of sense and then finally even if you were to argue that
08:51 08:51 - this was just a parable you still have to kind of take this to mean that the circumstances of the parable could not
08:57 08:57 - and would not teach theological error and so this kind of comes up when talking about a false teaching called
09:04 09:04 - Soul sleep which is kind of the idea that when people die they they kind of go to sleep until Resurrection Day like
09:10 09:10 - they they cease to have conscious existence so we’re not going to get into that in our video tonight because it’s
09:15 09:15 - kind of off topic for what we’re talking about but that’s kind of why even if you argue that this was just a parable it
09:22 09:22 - kind of doesn’t get you out of the theological implications of what is being talked about here
09:31 09:31 - so next we’re going to be talking about when Jesus describes Lazarus as sleeping in John chap 11 it’s very clear from
09:40 09:40 - John chapter 11 that Lazarus was dead unlike in the Matthew chapter 9 passage which we’ll get to in a moment there can
09:47 09:47 - be absolutely no doubt whatsoever on the part of anyone this is because in John 11:1 17 we hear that Lazarus had already
09:56 09:56 - been in tuned for 4 days before Jesus arrived arrived in Bethany where Mary and Martha and Lazarus live so why then
10:04 10:04 - did Jesus employ the language of sleeping instead of death quite simply the explanation here is that he was just
10:10 10:10 - speaking euphemistically we still do this nowadays as well for example in English
10:15 10:15 - we might say someone passed away or is no longer with us or went to be with Jesus rather than bluntly saying that
10:22 10:22 - they died but in all of these things we kind of clearly get that the thing being spoken of is death
10:29 10:29 - here’s another on-topic quote from my mentor who I mentioned before so he’s sort of starting out in his response
10:37 10:37 - here addressing a question about that false Doctrine I mentioned before called Soul sleep and he says that a major part
10:44 10:44 - of the issue why people have kind of gotten this false idea in the past is because of this euphemism sleep for
10:50 10:50 - those who have died now in terms of what exactly euphemisms are a euphemism is a circumlocution or certain phraseology
11:00 11:00 - that is more pleasant or less offensive than giving something it’s most direct and abrupt name and so this is why a
11:07 11:07 - veterinarian might say to you I’m sorry to have to tell you that your cat has passed instead of saying straight out
11:13 11:13 - your cat is dead and if we humans kind of feel compunctions about being too Direct in the case of the death of
11:21 11:21 - someone’s pet well how much more inappropriate would it be for us to say if someone’s family member straight out
11:27 11:27 - he’s dead you know as if uh you know in the shocking in the most shocking way possible rather than trying to be gentle
11:33 11:33 - for the sake of those who are left behind and in fact the use of euphemism is something that is also present other
11:41 11:41 - places in scripture um so we would say that it’s part of inspiration uh if we believe the Bible is true and inspired
11:48 11:48 - by the Holy Spirit then the fact that the writers of the Bible use euphemism is something that is inspired by the
11:55 11:55 - spirit so for example uh there’s sort of avoiding of direct terms for sexual and other biological functions in the pentat
12:04 12:04 - so those are the first five books of the Old Testament and then in terms of death um on point to our current discussion
12:10 12:10 - topic uh Jesus uses this euphemism in John chapter 11 which is kind of what we’re talking about in context here and
12:19 12:19 - so sort of the point here is that when people in the bible say that uh he or she is asleep they often mean that that
12:27 12:27 - person is dead without there being any conclusion to be drawn from the nature of the euphemism about the current state
12:33 12:33 - of the individual since we can’t really tell you know if someone has died whether they have gone to heaven or to
12:39 12:39 - hell to await judgment because you know obviously we can’t see into human hearts now the problem in this is that
12:47 12:47 - in English we really don’t use the same idiom and so this is something that kind of varies across cultures and languages
12:54 12:54 - so death is something that is very commonly euphemistically spoken of so it is something that’s common for people to
13:00 13:00 - not say quite so uh straight out so we have plenty of euphemisms for death in English I I mentioned several before but
13:07 13:07 - they’re not the same as in Hebrew here so we really don’t have in our common practice saying that someone is dead is
13:15 13:15 - asleep it’s just not something that we have culturally in fact in our cultural view
13:21 13:21 - you could kind of see how some people might think that using this particular euphemism might seem kind of cruel
13:26 13:26 - rather than kind because it might seem to imply that someone could just be awakened when in fact if they’re
13:32 13:32 - actually dead you know viewing things from a secular materialistic perspective at any rate you know they that wouldn’t
13:39 13:39 - be the case they would be actually gone so that sort of sense of false hope here might might seem to even be kind of
13:45 13:45 - cruel but in the context of our story here and more to the point in the Hebrew idiom and and kind of the ties it has
13:51 13:51 - with their views of the Resurrection from the dead we kind of do see the superiority of the biblical idiom for
13:58 13:58 - death here uh because when Jesus says he’s going to wake up Lazarus he actually does so um and so this was a
14:06 14:06 - miracle obviously that has rarely been repeated in the history of the world because obviously you know it’s not like
14:13 14:13 - people just go around raising others from the dead on a regular basis but it does show that behind the world sorry
14:22 14:22 - behind the word sleep used in the biblical euphemism for death there does lie the possibility of a Awakening not
14:29 14:29 - of this physical body in its corrupt state uh you know that is aside from these uncommon Miracles as in the case
14:36 14:36 - of a Lazarus but of the body transformed in Resurrection at the return of Jesus Christ so we would think of passages
14:44 14:44 - like First Corinthians chapter 15 in this and so we actually get this directly in the passage when you
14:50 14:50 - consider Martha’s word to Jesus I know he he being Lazarus will rise again in the resurrection at the last day in
14:59 14:59 - response to when Jesus had said your brother will rise again but diving into the Greek vocabulary here for just a
15:05 15:05 - second uh the verb here on E while it is the standard word for Resurrection used in the New Testament is actually also
15:14 15:14 - the standard word for getting up and waking up from sleep so kind of to pull it all together whether we’re talking
15:21 15:21 - about genuine sleep or miraculous resuscitation of the body as with Lazarus or the actual Resurrection ction
15:28 15:28 - and transformation of the body that will happen at our Lord’s return in all of these cases we have quote unquote sleep
15:35 15:35 - followed by rising and kind of what we mean by that is that it’s unquestionably the body
15:42 15:42 - which sleeps and then Rises but when we die we kind of become out of this body and we go face to face with the Lord um
15:50 15:50 - so this body meaning like our present mortal bodies that we have in this life and so I’ll kind of turn back to this a
15:58 15:58 - little bit later in our video tonight but uh basically the takeaway here is that the euphemism of sleep for death is
16:06 16:06 - clearly and entirely directed at the body not the spirit and so a lot of versions sometimes translate a soul here
16:15 16:15 - um and so that’s translating a Hebrew word nephesh and the Greek word is psuk and uh the soul is biblically speaking
16:23 16:23 - you know what that word means in Greek and Hebrew is kind of the combination of our bodies and our spirit
16:29 16:29 - so the spirits given by God at the point of birth for us as humans and together those things compose the soul um so uh
16:37 16:37 - just taking a step back as I say the takeaway here is that sleep is uh getting at the physical sense of death
16:46 16:46 - rather than sort of what we’d call the spiritual or Eternal sense of it and so kind of to pull us a little bit back
16:52 16:52 - more into John chap 11 uh because we in our culture do not use sleep as a euphemism for death in the same way that
16:59 16:59 - the Hebrew culture did at least at the time that Christ was around it can kind of be harder for us to pick up on this
17:06 17:06 - when we read English translations and kind of look at the situation from the quote unquote English
17:12 17:12 - worldview but in fact to properly grasp the meaning of the Bible sometimes we must Endeavor to put ourselves in the
17:19 17:19 - shoes of a first century Hebrew speaking person from Judea just for example you know that’s kind of us in this situation
17:26 17:26 - in John 11 and then read the Bible from that perspective rather than our own perspective uh you may sort of sometimes
17:33 17:33 - hear this term quote unquote culture sensitive interpretation or something along those lines and in this it’s not
17:40 17:40 - that the truth ever really changes or or anything like that it’s simply that we must do our homework when it comes to
17:46 17:46 - interpreting the Bible according to the audience To Whom It Was Written like we need to care about that it’s part of
17:53 17:53 - doing interpretation correctly and when we do do that hopefully it kind of becomes clear why
17:59 17:59 - Jesus’s words here are no contradiction for we can see from John 11:3 that Jesus actually did mean that
18:08 18:08 - Lazarus was dead when he said he was sleeping um in fact if you if you look at this verse that is very much what it
18:14 18:14 - says almost like word for word literally um Jesus had spoken of his death the only thing that Jesus said before this
18:21 18:21 - verse in John 11 was that Lazarus was asleep and then all the apostles were like well well he’ll wake up you know
18:27 18:27 - he’ll be he’ll be F but Jesus had actually meant in that as this verse says that Lazarus was dead um so that’s
18:33 18:33 - how he was using the word it’s very clear uh John 11:13 um you can’t get out of it says
18:40 18:40 - that Jesus used it as a euphemism that’s what this verse kind of forces us to say um so we’ve just gone through uh that is
18:48 18:48 - kind of what um Jesus meant when he used sleeping here in John chapter 11 um just this verse and you know everything we’ve
18:55 18:55 - gone through here helps us understand that in this particular particular passage Jesus was using sleeping as a
19:01 19:01 - euphemism for death all right so now we’re going to be talking about gyrus his daughter in
19:10 19:10 - Matthew chapter 9 this passage actually appears across all synoptic gospels so that’s Matthew
19:17 19:17 - Mark and Luke and uh it can kind of often be helpful to read all the gospels in parallel for these parallel passages
19:24 19:24 - to see how the same events are described by the different writers now we can kind of actually limit ourselves to Matthew
19:30 19:30 - here since kind of with respect to the question that we’re addressing of why Jesus said the girl was sleeping uh that
19:37 19:37 - detail is pretty consistent across all three accounts so we’ll just limit ourselves to looking at the Matthew
19:42 19:42 - account I just thought I’d mention the fact that it is a good habit to get into of comparing uh parallel passages when
19:49 19:49 - we study the gospels so first of all we’re going to talk about some of the context here so the people in the crowd
19:57 19:57 - um that was at Gus’s house when Jesus got there were in all likelihood sort of professional mourners uh that concept
20:05 20:05 - may seem a little bit forign to us in our time like you pay people to go do uh the morning rituals that are part of you
20:12 20:12 - know the funeral rights of your culture uh but it’s kind of similar in our day to maybe hiring a Pianist to play hymns
20:19 20:19 - at a loved one’s funeral or something like that you know the the people whose job it is to kind of um you know provide
20:26 20:26 - music at the event or or set the atmosphere and things like that now kind of why I’m bringing this up is because
20:34 20:34 - the people here were to put it somewhat crudely there for money they were kind of there to get paid it was their job um
20:40 20:40 - and so they would have been hired to perform the culturally expected funerary proceedings uh you know so if if someone
20:47 20:47 - dies this is the the steps that their culture takes to have a funeral in an orderly manner you know these are just
20:54 20:54 - sort of the things that are expected um but because they’re kind of paid help it does kind of explain why a lack of
21:01 21:01 - decorum on their part probably ought not Shock us as if they were family members of the person deceased sort of sad as
21:08 21:08 - that is to say um that is you kind of want people to be respectful at funerals you know have some respect for the dead
21:15 21:15 - and things like that but because they might be people just being paid um that is why it ought not Shock us if we don’t
21:24 21:24 - see that respect from them and so this is kind of why these people mock Jesus’s statement in Matthew chapter 9: 24 when
21:32 21:32 - he says that the girl is not dead but just sleeping um so obviously mocking Jesus and under this set of
21:39 21:39 - circumstances is kind of disrespectful um but these people aren’t necessarily the family here they would be people who
21:45 21:45 - were hired uh for the the funeral rights and so that’s kind of why um in context these are the people mocking Jesus not
21:53 21:53 - so much gyrus who went to get Jesus out of Faith trusting that Jesus could actually heal his daughter but the
21:59 21:59 - people who would be present there at the home who were not part of the family and so those people they kind of might be
22:05 22:05 - thinking something along these lines now I should say we don’t have anything in the Bible like this I’m just sort of
22:11 22:11 - trying to get us to think about what might have been going through these people’s heads so they might be thinking
22:16 22:16 - something like this we were just hired to do the funeral things for this girl and now this Joker shows up and says
22:22 22:22 - she’s not even dead but only asleep please Mister give me a break just let us go back to work so we can collect our
22:29 22:29 - payment right so if I was one of these people who’ been paid to do these things and then someone shows up and says oh
22:36 22:36 - hold on we’re canceling this she’s not even dead you know when everyone thinks she’s dead the parents hired these
22:42 22:42 - people because she’s dead you know people would obviously be skeptical and um the the response that Jesus gets is
22:49 22:49 - kind of conditioned on account of these things and so kind of the point of going through all this is just to sort of set
22:56 22:56 - the scene here for this passage in Matthew this is kind of what’s going on when Jesus arrives at gyrus house um
23:03 23:03 - having been taken there uh you know told that his daughter is either dead or on the point of death um Jesus is arriving
23:11 23:11 - uh to this set of circumstances all right so having kind of set the uh set the scene here we’re
23:21 23:21 - going to be talking now about how Jesus actually isn’t using sleeping as a euphemism this time but he’s kind of
23:27 23:27 - doing something completely different with it so because we argued there that Jesus was definitely using it as a
23:34 23:34 - euphemism in John chapter 11 it can be kind of tempting to think that maybe we should just do the same thing here but
23:41 23:41 - there are kind of some issues with doing that now first as my friend pointed out Jesus never clarifies to say that the
23:49 23:49 - girl was in fact dead um so that would have been a really natural thing for him to do when the crowd began to mock him
23:56 23:56 - in Matthew chapter 9: 24 so after all if he really did mean in saying that the girl was sleeping that she was dead why
24:04 24:04 - would he hide it then why would he not say no really you know like when they think they’re laughing at him for saying
24:11 24:11 - that you know because they think he’s saying you know like she’s asleep as and not dead why wouldn’t he set the record
24:17 24:17 - straight with them if that’s actually what he meant so that’s kind of that’s kind of one reason against this but then
24:24 24:24 - sort of the second thing is that we can note that Jesus actually shoes the people away he kicks the crowd out of
24:31 24:31 - the house and makes them wait outside and so if there were nothing else going on here in the situation and he were
24:37 24:37 - just merely speaking euphemistically and he was actually planning on raising her from the dead and being kind of open
24:42 24:42 - about it then why would he do this why would he kick the people out and then so it’s really natural to ask well if he’s
24:49 24:49 - not doing that and that’s you know so far that’s what we’ve talked about when Jesus uses the word sleeping in the
24:54 24:54 - context of death well if he’s not doing that well what is he doing what is going on here then so in my opinion the best
25:02 25:02 - way to interpret this passage in Matthew chapter 9 and in the other parallel passages in the other synoptic gospels
25:09 25:09 - that are talking about the same thing is that Jesus knew full well that gyrus his daughter was dead but yet she he said
25:15 25:15 - that she was sleeping and very intentionally never clarified whether it was a euphemism or not like it’s not
25:21 25:21 - just something that the gospel writers just omitted or something he actually never did clarify so culturally kind of
25:29 25:29 - as we argued in the John chap 11 section of this video we did say that this was a euphemism in common use in their culture
25:36 25:36 - you know even if it’s not in ours this was something that people of the time would understand but even so people here
25:43 25:43 - would still have wondered if he was being literal as in she’s actually asleep not dead um especially when the
25:50 25:50 - girl comes walking out of the house in relatively short order here um so uh you know when Jesus said this it was a
25:57 25:57 - euphemism people could interpret it as meaning that she was dead but they could also interpret it as meaning she was
26:03 26:03 - alive so the sort of two reasons for why I Think Jesus would do this that is uh you know saying this which some people
26:11 26:11 - could take to be a euphemism for death but some people could also take literally and then uh two reasons why he
26:17 26:17 - wouldn’t clarify to sort of set the record straight about what was actually happening so the first reason would be
26:24 26:24 - kind of for his own sake specifically so whenever Jesus did Miracles those Miracles Drew immense crowds I mean and
26:32 26:32 - especially for the time thousands of people back then I mean we have thousands of people nowadays regularly
26:37 26:37 - at concerts and so on but back then this many people was immense you know and and the amount of pressure that that puts or
26:46 26:46 - just you know Jesus not being able to get alone to pray and things like that um all these people drawn in by the
26:53 26:53 - shiny things and the spectacle of it all so the pyrot Technics if you will of Jesus’s Miracles you know they didn’t
26:59 26:59 - care about what he had to say so much is that they wanted to see these miraculous things the signs and wonders well these
27:06 27:06 - people would make it really hard for Jesus to accomplish his ministry so uh God the Father sent Jesus into the world
27:14 27:14 - in the Incarnation for a specific purpose culminating in the cross where he paid for the sins of us all and so he
27:21 27:21 - had a mission and having all of these people follow him around because they wanted to see him do wondrous things
27:28 27:28 - kind of gets in the way of that mission and so we can kind of see this phenomenon pretty clearly in Mark 1
27:35 27:35 - verses 40- 45 so I’m going to go ahead and open this up and then read it so in mark 1:
27:42 27:42 - 40-45 it says this and a leper came to Jesus beseeching him and falling on his knees before him and saying if you are
27:50 27:50 - willing you can make me clean moved with compassion Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him I am
27:57 27:57 - willing be cleansed immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed and he sternly warned him and immediately
28:04 28:04 - sent him away and he said to him see that you say nothing to anyone but go show yourself to the priest and offer
28:11 28:11 - for your cleansing what Moses commanded as a testimony to them but he being the leper went out and began to Proclaim it
28:18 28:18 - freely and to spread the news around to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city but stayed
28:25 28:25 - out in unpopulated areas and they were coming to him from everywhere so sort of the point of
28:31 28:31 - bringing this up is that you can see that whenever Jesus did Miracles and people spread the fame of these Miracles
28:38 28:38 - it made it hard for him to move about or just do anything to be honest because he had all these people excited in the
28:45 28:45 - spectacle of it and there are some other passages here to you know I quoted a couple just
28:51 28:51 - right after this in Matthew chapter 9 actually Jesus heals some Blind Men and then tells them to not spread it about
28:57 28:57 - and then another case in Matthew chap 12 when he’s healing people but the basic idea here is that Jesus as a general
29:05 29:05 - rule wanted to keep his miracles veiled and something that was decidedly less than shouted from the rooftops and
29:12 29:12 - that’s to avoid the celebrity of it all since it interfered with the plan that God the father had for him and carrying
29:19 29:19 - out his ministry here in the world and so we kind of just talked about you know maybe why Jesus would want to avoid the
29:26 29:26 - fame and the spectacle of this but even aside from his own celebrity consider for a moment the life that this poor
29:33 29:33 - girl would lead if Jesus raised her from the dead in an unambiguous sort of way in front of a large crowd of people so
29:40 29:40 - himself aside it’s quite likely that Jesus avoided doing this to spare her and her family the sheer amount of
29:46 29:46 - interference this would cause in the rest of their lives and so you can kind of compare famous people today who have
29:54 29:54 - stalkers and they have fans and you know they can never go go anywhere without you know having large groups of people
30:00 30:00 - acost them um well imagine if you were the person who everyone saw with their own eyes get raised from the dead um now
30:09 30:09 - of course this happened with Lazarus we we’ll get there in a second but for a young girl in that time and place that
30:15 30:15 - sort of pressure and attention was something that you can kind of see why Jesus would want to spare her from that
30:21 30:21 - and her family it it wouldn’t just be her it be be the entire uh the entire family would have all these people come
30:26 30:26 - and say well are you the people who Jesus raised from the dead you know like what happened show us talk to us tell us
30:33 30:33 - about it for you know months or years or even her entire life she might face that sort of thing and so you can kind of see
30:40 30:40 - that you could make an argument here that Jesus would want to have that that outcome avoided for this family you know
30:46 30:46 - he wouldn’t want to put them in the spotlight due to all the negative pressure that comes with that and you
30:51 30:51 - know I’ll get to this when we talk about Lazarus but it’s not just you know the interfering Busy Bodies if you will the
30:57 30:57 - Pharisees to attempt to Stamp Out The credibility of Jesus um actually considered putting to death the people
31:04 31:04 - that he raised from the dead because if if Jesus raised him from the dead and people believe in him because of it well
31:10 31:10 - then one solution to that problem from the Pharisees perspective is to kill the people that he raised from the dead and
31:15 31:15 - say well you see he’s not actually raised from the dead and so Jesus would want to spare the young girl and her
31:21 31:21 - family from this and so just to elaborate on this idea a little bit more if Jes Jesus insisted that she was
31:28 31:28 - sleeping sends everyone out like he did and then she appears a few minutes later rumors sort of take over and do the rest
31:35 31:35 - of the work here so no doubt the girl and her family even in this case would receive some attention if people thought
31:41 31:41 - that Jesus had miraculously healed her from very s very serious illness but on the other hand Jesus did do that
31:49 31:49 - reasonably often with plenty of other people too like this would not be the only time that you know he kind of you
31:54 31:54 - know miraculously healed someone that was on the brink of death or very serious ailment you know he made the
32:00 32:00 - blind sea for example so she would hardly be unique in this capacity so in this case after a while the nosiness of
32:07 32:07 - others would die down they’d probably forget about her as Jesus you know healed the next person and then the
32:13 32:13 - family could live in peace but if Jesus unambiguously raised her from the dead in front of everyone well that’s a wee
32:20 32:20 - bit more of a thing you know people would remember that that would have this huge impact and so just to highlight
32:27 32:27 - this point a bit there’s actually only two other instances of Jesus raising people from the dead in scripture aside
32:33 32:33 - from this passage here which is gyrus daughter one we’ve already talked about that’s the raising of Lazarus in John
32:41 32:41 - chapter 11 the other is the Widow of nson in Luke 7: 11-1 17 now based on the argument that I’ve
32:51 32:51 - been making here one could kind of Fairly ask if Jesus might wish to avoid Fame for himself and others as a matter
32:58 32:58 - of practicality as I’ve just been arguing for well why did Jesus not try to play off these two instances as well
33:05 33:05 - that is imply in some way that he was not actually raising these people from the
33:09 33:09 - dead so that is Lazarus in John chapter 11 and the Widow of nine son in Luke chapter 7 and so kind of a couple points
33:19 33:19 - here in the case of the Widow of ninon in Luke chapter 7 well Jesus actually raised him from the dead during the
33:27 33:27 - funeral procession you like touch the coffin and he comes out uh you kind of don’t have a lot of plausible
33:33 33:33 - deniability there right and so in the Matthew chapter 9 passage Jesus actually sends them all out of the house and then
33:40 33:40 - he makes the girl come to life and so uh you know there’s this sense that that well was she actually really dead you
33:47 33:47 - know because people who weren’t in there you know that’s where the rumors start to spread there’s this this sense of no
33:51 33:51 - one can refute it or contradict it but not so much when you you take the guy out of the coffin in the funeral
33:58 33:58 - procession and this is true of Lazarus as well who as we kind of already mentioned when we were talking about uh
34:05 34:05 - his case in John 11 well he’d already been in the Tomb for four days before Jesus even got to Bethany and so you
34:12 34:12 - know one obvious reason why Jesus didn’t do some of this their only sleeping business and and sort of try to downplay
34:20 34:20 - the celebrity and the fame and the spectacle here is because in these cases it just simply wouldn’t be possible to
34:25 34:25 - do that but even aside from that uh there’s actually another thing here as well and that’s the fact that both of
34:32 34:32 - these people were adult men and so even with interfering Busy Bodies or Worse bothering them on account of the miracle
34:41 34:41 - they would be capable of warding off anything problematic from them and their families and so I kind of kind of hinted
34:46 34:46 - at this earlier in John 12:1 the chief priest plan to put Lazarus to death also because of the people who were believing
34:54 34:54 - because of him so Jesus raises his raises him from the dead and then people based on the witness of that Miracle
35:02 35:02 - believe that he’s the son of God that he has the authority over life and death and then the fair well they don’t like
35:07 35:07 - this right Jesus is he’s not conforming to their power structure they want to get rid of him and one way to get rid of
35:13 35:13 - his influence is to just kill Lazarus because if all these people say well Lazarus who was sick and died we know he
35:19 35:19 - died well if he’s actually dead then suddenly you can quote unquote disprove the miracle right at least that’s how
35:26 35:26 - the Pharisees would see it and so we don’t have anything else mentioned in this in scripture um we do know that
35:32 35:32 - Jesus was close to Lazarus and his sisters you know he openly wept when Lazarus died and Mary and Martha show up
35:39 35:39 - elsewhere in the Bible you know this was a family uh whom Jesus loved who were kind of close to him but you know
35:47 35:47 - Lazarus would get Flack from this and again we don’t we don’t know a great deal more about this in the Bible like
35:52 35:52 - what happened you know were they successful in putting him to death eventually we really don’t know but the
35:57 35:57 - point is is that he would have heat and pressure from uh the Pharisees and the other leaders of the Jews at this point
36:03 36:03 - who resented the authority that Jesus had and that people were following him because of this and so Lazarus as an
36:10 36:10 - adult man he could kind of handle this but the point here in context is that a young girl who was raised from the dead
36:17 36:17 - you know throwing her into that den of vipers if you will is a completely different thing and I should just note
36:23 36:23 - here that this is especially true given the relatively higher degree of vulnerability women were forced to
36:29 36:29 - contend with in Antiquity and so nowadays uh there is not perhaps quite so much I I I would still argue that
36:36 36:36 - this is true but uh in Antiquity when someone like this uh you know a woman in their society um especially a young
36:44 36:44 - woman you know we don’t know exactly how young Gus’s daughter was but not old um the the amount of power that she would
36:52 36:52 - have to fight against things like this would be very limited relative to the these men that Jesus raised from the
36:58 36:58 - dead and so these two things kind of together this is kind of why we’re arguing well Jesus might try to minimize
37:04 37:04 - the fame and the amount that this miracle spreads here in Matthew chapter 9 but that doesn’t contradict these
37:10 37:10 - other cases because there’s these other factors in play as well now I’ll kind of close this part out by acknowledging
37:16 37:16 - that a lot of what I’ve just said here is based on inference and degree of speculation on my part so it’s not as if
37:22 37:22 - the Bible actually directly says these things very explicitly but I actually do believe
37:28 37:28 - that this is more than just an opinion so there are certain matters of scripture where we kind of say well it
37:33 37:33 - could be this it could be this you know I I this is just what I think but you know other people who think something
37:38 37:38 - different well you know we’re just kind of taking position on something we can’t be sure on I’m actually pretty black and
37:43 37:43 - white on this even though I think we get there a bit indirectly and that’s because I see little other explanation
37:49 37:49 - that satisfies all the elements in this passage in Matthew chapter 9 without having other problems at the same time
37:56 37:56 - and so one bit that causes special trouble for people is Jesus sending the people out um most other interpretations
38:03 38:03 - don’t really have a good reason for that you know like why wouldn’t Jesus just raise her like he did Lazarus um and the
38:09 38:09 - other the other man in front of witnesses like why would he do those that way but this one is different um
38:15 38:15 - that’s why I say this point of view that I’ve articulated I think is the only one that really captures it all that
38:21 38:21 - explains it all and makes good sense because other interpretations do exist for this it’s just I don’t think they
38:27 38:27 - reconcile all the evidence and they kind of wave their hand at the things that don’t fit in a way that I don’t think is
38:32 38:32 - proper for us when we do try to interpret the Bible as the inspired word of God now I should also say that some
38:40 38:40 - people might be offended at the line of thinking that I’ve suggested here uh because you know they would say that it
38:46 38:46 - suggests that Jesus intentionally misdirected the beliefs of others so if you were being uncharitable you would
38:52 38:52 - call this lying and I don’t want to get off on a big tangent here but I would ask these
38:58 38:58 - people what they think of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1: 15-22 as well as Rahab in Joshua chapter
39:07 39:07 - 2 so in The Exodus passage which I mean you can you can read it um but I’m just going to summarize it here um the Hebrew
39:14 39:14 - midwives were you know ordered to search the children and and then kill you know like uh uh basically report to Pharaoh
39:21 39:21 - for the ones and they they didn’t do it they saved the children uh they disobeyed direct order and they lied to
39:27 39:27 - Pharaoh’s face basically about it uh you know Hebrew children are I don’t want to butcher the paraphrase here but um you
39:35 39:35 - know like basically put to death the sons and uh you know the Hebrew midwives are like well you know they give birth
39:43 39:43 - so fast you know we can’t get there in time and um this is not true um but God commends them for it they’re blessed
39:49 39:49 - they’re given families of their own on account of what they do the actions they take here you know they could be they
39:54 39:54 - could be put to death by Pharaoh for this right but it is most certainly a lie you can’t get out of it in that
39:59 39:59 - situation and in Joshua chapter 2 when Rahab is hiding the hiding the Hebrew spies um when they are going to take
40:08 40:08 - Jericho um she again direct Li she’s praised for it in the New Testament in Hebrews chap 11 and James chapter 2 so
40:15 40:15 - Hebrews 11:31 and James chapter 2 verse 25 people do try to argue against what I’m saying here they try to explain it
40:23 40:23 - all away somehow but the clearest sense is that actually in both of these cases the people in question are praised for
40:30 40:30 - the actions they took I.E being dishonest to someone um now this will no doubt ruffle feathers I’m quite sure
40:36 40:36 - people will not like this but my contention is that part of growing up spiritually is learning to distinguish
40:43 40:43 - actual moral virtue from legalistic rules that have the appearance of Holiness but are in fact compatible with
40:50 40:50 - true righteousness and so the point here is that you know if you want to say well Jesus shouldn’t have said she was
40:56 40:56 - sleeping she should have just said he was dead and then raised her from the dead in front of everyone well what say
41:01 41:01 - you then to the harm that could befall that family and if Jesus couldn’t do his ministry after that because of all these
41:07 41:07 - people following him around in this case is that actually what is right you might also compare the idea of Sabbath
41:14 41:14 - observance in the New Testament um so what is the actual sense behind the law you know what is the law what purpose
41:21 41:21 - does it serve that sort of thinking is kind of what I’m trying to get at here and so I don’t think we need to be
41:26 41:26 - concerned about this because if there was ever one person in the history of the world who is capable of discerning
41:32 41:32 - what is actually righteous from that which is not it’s going to be Jesus right now I am not the only person in
41:39 41:39 - the world who thinks what I put forth U my mentor who I’ve already quoted from several times he has some stuff up on
41:45 41:45 - this so I me I’ll just show you um if you click these links this is kind of cool if you use a Chromium browser I
41:51 41:51 - think some other browsers May implement the same specification it will actually like take you directly to the text on
41:56 41:56 - the page like you can link to specific paragraphs and stuff so he has a couple questions and answers things up on the
42:02 42:02 - site that talk about this you know the same thing about trying to preserve uh the consider out of consideration for
42:09 42:09 - the girl and her family L they get all this Fame and they become targets because of it um he thinks the same
42:15 42:15 - thing in this regard um so you know two two links there talking about similar things now if you don’t use a browser
42:24 42:24 - like that like maybe Safari or something you can still search for the word sleep on those pages and you’ll find those
42:28 42:28 - sections as well okay that finally brings us to Hebrews 9:27 so we’ve kind of gone over
42:38 42:38 - Lazarus now we’ve gone over gyrus his daughter and now we’re getting to this verse in Hebrews chapter 9 so the
42:46 42:46 - question is kind of this if Hebrews 9:27 says that it is appointed for man to die once and after that in judgment well
42:54 42:54 - then what about Lazarus and gyrus daughter aren’t they dying twice not once and I will say it’s not just these
43:01 43:01 - two it gets even worse than this so there’s this passage in Matthew chapter 27 that talks about when Jesus was on
43:09 43:09 - the cross he cried out the veil of the temple was torn into two from top to bottom the Earth shook the Rocks were
43:15 43:15 - split and then the tombs were opened and many bodies of the Saints who had fallen asleep came out and many people saw them
43:21 43:21 - right so all these people came out from the grave and and you know they were about you know people
43:26 43:26 - actually go show the passage here um you know they appeared to many um by all accounts these were people who had been
43:33 43:33 - dead you know they came out of their tombs and they were walking around Jerusalem um and so this isn’t just like
43:40 43:40 - a person or two there’s a group of people there but even more than that an even more striking example I don’t want
43:46 43:46 - to get off topic here but if you take the two witnesses of Revelation and so you can see this in uh Revelation 11
43:55 43:55 - here I’m not going to get too far into this but um the two witnesses um you know God will grant them Authority they
44:01 44:01 - will prophecy for 1260 days all these things happen um well these people um you can make a pretty strong case for
44:12 44:12 - these two actually being Moses and Elijah and so there’s a good reason for this although that’s ultimately kind of
44:18 44:18 - a topic for different time I’m not really going to get into it here but when these guys go around smiting bad
44:24 44:24 - guys with style you know calling down plagues and fire and things like that well this will be like a few thousand
44:31 44:31 - years after Moses and Elijah had last walk the earth you know some thousands of years BC um and yet they’re certainly
44:40 44:40 - said to be dead after the Beast kills them in Revelation 11 chapter sorry chapter 11 verse 7 um you know the Beast
44:48 44:48 - you know overcame them and killed them um so what gives right you know if I’m saying that these people are Moses and
44:55 44:55 - El and Moses and Elijah died thousands of years ago yet they are going to be
45:00 45:00 - walking around in the end times smiting bad guys how does that work you know like how does that not mean that they
45:08 45:08 - are dying twice right um and so doesn’t that mean that they’re contradicting Hebrews chapter 9 as well so not just
45:14 45:14 - Lazarus not just Gus’s daughter there’s all these other examples in the Bible too so why I said it gets worse so if
45:19 45:19 - you’re troubled by this question it’s a good question you know it’s something that’s fair for us to ask how does this
45:24 45:24 - work so so we’ll see kind of how convincing you find this but in my opinion the best way to answer this in
45:32 45:32 - the short way is at least saying that there’s death and then there’s death so biblically speaking there’s kind of a
45:38 45:38 - difference between resuscitation as was the case for Lazarus and gyrus his daughter and all
45:43 45:43 - the other examples we mentioned above even the two witnesses um so if you remember back to the Old Testament
45:49 45:49 - Elijah actually rote a chariot up to heaven uh he didn’t die physically in the way most people do and there’s
45:55 45:55 - actually this other interesting passage that talk about um kind of a scuffle between uh you know elect angels and
46:01 46:01 - Fallen Angels over Moses’s body well why did they need to get Moses’s body you know these are some of the reasons why
46:07 46:07 - we make these identifications of Moses and Elijah but their physical bodies are going to be brought back to life like
46:14 46:14 - the bodies that they had back then you know Lazarus didn’t get a new body when Jesus called him out of the Grave same
46:21 46:21 - thing with Gus’s daughter well that’s different here than resurrect in the manner of 1 Corinthians 15 like
46:29 46:29 - the trumpet sounds the dead will rise that passage is resurrection proper dead people are resuscitated dead people are
46:38 46:38 - resurrected right and so that maybe seems a little bit handwavy here but resuscitation and Resurrection is the
46:45 46:45 - answer to this question here in Hebrews chapter nine and kind of just to emphasize here it’s the Eternal bodies
46:52 46:52 - bit that’s the big difference here so when someone is resuscitated they are put back in their mortal body um where
46:59 46:59 - they were to begin with right they don’t have a new body like Jesus did after his resurrection where they can like go
47:05 47:05 - through walls and and you know fly and that sort of thing um and uh they still have their bodies just
47:13 47:13 - like they were when they were alive before so I’m sure that all sounds kind of handwavy you know unfortunately I
47:20 47:20 - don’t want to spend too much time over this I’m just trying to give the short answer here but there it is so put
47:26 47:26 - simply all those who are resuscitated are not dead in the Eternal sense of never again walking the Earth in Mortal
47:33 47:33 - bodies of fleshly corruption I don’t know why I wrote it quite like that but basically they’re they’re not going to
47:38 47:38 - have these mortal bodies um that turn us against God you know it’s like Galatians 5 right our desires from the flesh are
47:46 47:46 - not spiritual um they’re not going to have these bodies anymore um those or sorry they will those who are
47:53 47:53 - resuscitated um will will have these bodies again but those who are resurrected will not and so the
47:59 47:59 - difference is here for us as humans we can’t really tell dead people are dead people we don’t know if they’re ever
48:06 48:06 - going to come back to life again or if they won’t until the last day but with God’s perfect forn knowledge and for
48:11 48:11 - ordination of all things only Those whom he does not Forno as being resuscitated are positionally dead in the sense of
48:20 48:20 - being in the state that they’ll be in until Judgment Day so worth all that a little bit more simply God knows who
48:27 48:27 - would be resuscitated so when Lazarus died it’s not like God was like okay Jesus is not going to get there for
48:34 48:34 - three days hm I wonder what’s going to happen God is in complete control of all events in human history this is part of
48:39 48:39 - what his forn knowledge and for ordination of all things means so in the eyes of God people who are resuscitated
48:46 48:46 - aren’t actually dead in the Eternal sense here and that is they are not phally waiting for judgment because they
48:53 48:53 - have unfinished business back in in the world right and so we could say in this way that the two types of dead you want
49:00 49:00 - to call it that are actually pretty different here and this is in the eyes of God just to emphasize that not for us
49:07 49:07 - as humans because when Lazarus was dead it’s not like people around him saw I don’t know like like sparkly shimmers or
49:14 49:14 - something above him it’s like oh he’s going to come back to life you know there isn’t a trace of it for us as
49:19 49:19 - humans it is indistinguishable we don’t know if God will ever resuscitate someone um so there’s examples in the
49:26 49:26 - Bible when a young man fell out of a window when Paul was teaching Paul brings him back from the dead as well
49:33 49:33 - but there’s no way for the people at that time to know well that that one he’s going to come back to life and that
49:38 49:38 - one’s not you know like there’s no way but God knows this and that’s what we’re kind of emphasizing here um in this
49:44 49:44 - progression I don’t want to get off topic in Hebrews chapter n um the writer of Hebrews is kind of you emphasizing
49:52 49:52 - this idea of the finality of once for all right Jesus doesn’t have to be put to death over and over again because his
49:58 49:58 - one sacrifice was sufficient to pay for sin unlike the temple sacrifices which you know again more of us I tangent but
50:06 50:06 - never had power themselves but were just kind of foreshadowing Jesus’s sacrifice well he put um he put our sin to death
50:13 50:13 - once for all on the cross and so that’s where this like you know it is appointed for man to die once sort of fits into
50:20 50:20 - that progression but what we’re talking about here the death in context there is to be eternally in the position of right
50:29 50:29 - before judgment right and that’s different than being in a state of resuscitation even if we as human beings
50:35 50:35 - can’t ever really tell the difference between them so I’m not sure if that’s completely convincing I hope it is um
50:42 50:42 - but that’s kind of the short answer here to well how can these people be resuscitated and yet not die twice it’s
50:49 50:49 - that they’re not in this state of um of Eternal waiting for judgment like they’re not there yet basically because
50:57 50:57 - God four knows that they’re going to be returned to their mortal bodies for a time before they actually do die in that
51:04 51:04 - Eternal sense and so just to give you a little bit more background on this I’m going to quote from my mentor site again
51:11 51:11 - here um other people have asked this question before you know it is is reasonably common one in apologetics um
51:17 51:17 - so someone asked whom Lazarus if he’d been raised from the dead twice and how do you reconcile that with this verse
51:23 51:23 - here from Hebrews that’s basically exactly what we’re asking right um so here’s what my mentor had to say so
51:30 51:30 - lazarus’s Resurrection really was an unusual case but it was not unprecedented so Jesus also raised the
51:37 51:37 - Widow’s son it’s that passage from Luke chapter 7 we already talked about um as well as Gus’s daughter it’s Matthew
51:44 51:44 - chapter 9 and then Elijah and Elisha so these are uh Old Testament prophets you know you might compare the book of Kings
51:52 51:52 - also have what I would call have a res resuscitation to their credit um but Hebrews 9: 27 was of course written in
52:02 52:02 - full knowledge of all these cases you know there are no mistakes in the Bible that’s what we believe in terms of
52:07 52:07 - inspiration and so um when people receive back their dead raised to life again um you know this is
52:17 52:17 - quoting Hebrews chapter 11:35 um you know this sort of thing you know in the book of Hebrews even you
52:26 52:26 - know in the same book that Hebrews chapter 9 shows up is not unprecedented this idea of resuscitation of people
52:32 52:32 - being returned back to their mortal bodies uh kind of after having left them if you will um in from the perspective
52:39 52:39 - of this world well it’s there right in the book of Hebrews as well and so where my mentor goes with this is that he says
52:46 52:46 - he would look at Hebrews 9:27 like this it doesn’t contradict these Miracles and it’s not ignorant of them because in all
52:53 52:53 - these cases there was still a final physical death right so people might be resuscitated for a time but in the end
53:00 53:00 - mortality catches up with them all just like all of us as humans so for that reason nothing can or ever could stand
53:08 53:08 - in the way of coming judgment that’s kind of positionally imminent for us all except for Christ being judged in our
53:15 53:15 - place that’s what saves us as Christians that’s what we put our faith in and so the examples of those who were
53:21 53:21 - temporarily brought back to life and that’s what we’re calling resuscitation here temporarily being brought back to
53:27 53:27 - life physical life in the Mortal body that’s different than Resurrection to be clear these actually confirm Hebrews
53:33 53:33 - 9:27 because even those who benefited the most from this amazing Miracle of resuscitation from the dead even those
53:41 53:41 - people could not avoid the appointment we all have with a final ultimate end to the physical life in these corrupt
53:48 53:48 - bodies we now inhabit you may have heard it phrase like this right being born is a death sentence no one from Adam to the
53:56 53:56 - last human being that ever lives will avoid physical death it is the lot of humanity that is what Hebrews 9:27 says
54:03 54:03 - we can’t escape it because eventually we will die and after that point we will be waiting for judgment right God will will
54:12 54:12 - pronounce judgment on what we do in this life um it just so happens that there’s these folks like gyrus his daughter and
54:19 54:19 - Lazarus and some other people in the Bible who who they have you know kind of a blip in their radar before they get
54:26 54:26 - there right so they are taken out of this life and then they temporarily are not in their bodies but then they get
54:33 54:33 - put back in their mortal bodies on their way to that final appointment to where they will be then positionally awaiting
54:41 54:41 - judgment right they died just like everyone else they just kind of had this this detour in the middle if you will
54:47 54:47 - and so the upshot for us is that only through the resurrection by virtue of our faith in Jesus Christ who is the
54:54 54:54 - resurrection in the life do we avoid that last judgment which leads to the second death you that’s sort of a poetic
55:01 55:01 - metaphorical way for talking about hell it is very literally the second death um and instead pass on to life eternal in
55:08 55:08 - Jesus Christ so this is what we believe this is what we have our faith in all right so kind of looking at another Q&A
55:15 55:15 - from ichus here um this one is on that passage I mentioned in Matthew chap 27: 53 which is when you know the veil is
55:23 55:23 - torn Jesus lets about this cry and then the dead rise in Jerusalem so again similar idea of these people who were
55:31 55:31 - very obviously in their tombs you know there’s no ambiguity for them um coming out and being seen by people in
55:36 55:36 - Jerusalem how do we reconcile that with Hebrews chapter 9: 27 um how was it that these people had to die a second death
55:43 55:43 - even though the Bible teaches that we die once same sort of question I’ll be you know using a different verse to
55:48 55:48 - phrase the question here so very similar to the last Q&A we just read my mentor kind of handles it like this the very
55:57 55:57 - few people that constitute an exception to the normal rule of well when you die you stay Dead uh this really isn’t even
56:03 56:03 - much of an exception even so because after these people were resuscitated eventually they fell into the same
56:10 56:10 - category as everyone else and that means um that eventually they faced a physical death from which there would be no more
56:16 56:16 - reprieve eventually they died and they stayed dead in other words and that is the real point of Hebrews 9:27 for every
56:23 56:23 - single person there will come a point in time from which they leave this Mortal this Mortal realm which TR come with a
56:32 56:32 - word that isn’t so like out there they’ll leave this Mortal realm never to return um that’s what Hebrews 9:27 says
56:38 56:38 - and then once they’ve left the next thing in line after that if you will in the narrative is uh the Judgment for
56:46 56:46 - them um and so we will all die physically we are all Mortal it’s what it means to be human that’s what Hebrews
56:52 56:52 - 9:27 is saying and so resusitation is kind of neither here nor there for that um and so it’s not so much about the
56:59 56:59 - physical death but we’re going to exit our mortal bodies once people who are resuscitated they haven’t yet made that
57:07 57:07 - final leap they haven’t been uh you know completely eternally severed from their mortal bodies because they come back in
57:14 57:14 - them um and so that’s why there is no contradiction here um so we will face God’s judgment after this either the
57:22 57:22 - Judgment of the righteous and so that’s standing before the Throne of God and receiving reward for what we do in the
57:27 57:27 - power of Christ or the Judgment of the unrighteous so-called great white Throne judgment when people are sentenced to
57:34 57:34 - hell for their unbelief not because of their sin but because of their unbelief and so that’s why everything in this
57:39 57:39 - life depends upon what we think of Jesus Christ and the point here is that for All Humans no one can do absolutely
57:46 57:46 - anything about this every single person will die and we will all face the Judgment that comes after this that’s
57:54 57:54 - what Hebrews 9:20 s is everyone will have this point after which they die they stay dead they are severed from
58:01 58:01 - their mortal bodies until we Face Eternal judgment and so just to use some more examples from scripture here um
58:08 58:08 - Elijah again this is in book of Kings I think it’s First Kings maybe um brought back a Widow’s son as well kind of
58:15 58:15 - similar to Jesus in Luke chapter 7 um the shunamite son whom Elisha brought back Tabitha is a person who Peter
58:24 58:24 - brought back and the New Testament and then the boy who I mentioned who fell from the window in Ephesus whom Paul
58:29 58:29 - brought back all those people were resuscitated in the same way but all of them died again just like Lazarus just
58:36 58:36 - like gyrus his daughter just like those people from this passage in Matthew chapter 27 that we’re kind of talking
58:42 58:42 - about in this Q&A all of these people once they had been resuscitated eventually they died physically again
58:50 58:50 - and so the contrast here is that all these people who went to live quote what normal lives after being resuscitated
58:57 58:57 - and then died again physically as it is appointed for Hebrews chap 9: 27 well that’s very different than those people
59:05 59:05 - who are resurrected because those people who are resurrected um you know their bodies are fundamentally different they
59:12 59:12 - cannot die again at least not in that sense and so there’s nothing to indicate in any of these cases that the physical
59:20 59:20 - Earthly body of those who were resuscitated was changed in any way other than the miracle of resuscitation
59:26 59:26 - itself that is that they were dead but now they’re alive again it’s not like they were alive in different bodies they
59:31 59:31 - have the same bodies and so there’s actually like another category of people here not to get too far off topic but um
59:38 59:38 - there’s Enoch who’s mentioned in the Book of Genesis here and then Elijah too who I mentioned just rode that Chariot
59:44 59:44 - on up to heaven well those guys didn’t actually die physically they just went straight there but then they’re going to
59:49 59:49 - be resurrected and appear before the the Judgment seat of Christ just the same as everyone else right so they didn’t even
59:55 59:55 - face physical death in the same way that we do kind of a special case here but in the end they’re still going to stand
01:00:01 01:00:01 - before Christ on Judgment Day um not in a negative sense but you know to to be evaluated as we all will be as human
01:00:09 01:00:09 - beings finally it’s not like anything we’ve said rests on this point but it’s also true that um the chronology of when
01:00:15 01:00:15 - we write this you know the the gospels and acts and when Paul um well actually I take Paul to write Hebrews not
01:00:21 01:00:21 - everyone agrees but the writer of Hebrews puts this in Hebrews chapter nine um depending on when you date the
01:00:25 01:00:25 - book quite likely that it postdates all the gospels in Acts which is where we have these accounts of resuscitation is
01:00:32 01:00:32 - that actually probably past this point there wasn’t anyone else who had this done I mean depends on how much you view
01:00:39 01:00:39 - modern day Miracles and stuff but um you know it’s another topic for a different time but basically it’s true from this
01:00:45 01:00:45 - point forward in Scripture that really there weren’t any other resuscitations but I think we don’t need to really care
01:00:50 01:00:50 - about that the main point that we’ve already been going over here is that resuscitation is different than
01:00:59 01:00:59 - Resurrection all right well this was probably quite a bit longer than you were expecting but um I just wanted to
01:01:06 01:01:06 - be thorough try to get to all facets of this so I’m just going to recap kind of what we’ve gone over here in this video
01:01:12 01:01:12 - um so the initial questions we were asking about uh John chapter 11 uh Matthew chapter n you know Lazarus and
01:01:21 01:01:21 - gyrus daughter well are they dead or are they asleep why did Jesus talk about it like that why did he kind of confirm
01:01:27 01:01:27 - that Lazarus was dead but he didn’t confirm that Gus’s daughter was dead you know he didn’t explain it um was this
01:01:33 01:01:33 - the same Lazarus as the Lazarus in Luke chapter 16 you know does that contradict Lazarus being asleep versus being dead
01:01:40 01:01:40 - um so those were some of the questions we went and so kind of in order of what we talked about we kind of first went
01:01:45 01:01:45 - over that the Lazarus of Luke chapter 16 is not the same as the Lazarus of John chap 11 you know there’s some reasons
01:01:51 01:01:51 - for thinking that because Lazarus the brother of Mary and Martha they seem to have been from a relatively affluent
01:01:57 01:01:57 - well-connected family near Jerusalem whereas the Lazarus of Luke chapter 16 is a beggar among the lowest social
01:02:05 01:02:05 - classes that there is um so just not seeming likely that those are the same person then we talked about um Jesus
01:02:12 01:02:12 - describing Lazarus as sleeping in John 11 um due to verse 13 more or less directly stating it this has to be Jesus
01:02:19 01:02:19 - speaking euphemistically that is what is meant In this passage that’s really the only way you can responsibly interpret
01:02:24 01:02:24 - it and we talked about gyrus his daughter in Matthew chapter 9 being something kind of different than that um
01:02:30 01:02:30 - so in my interpretation and again it’s not just an opinion so far as I would say is I think this is an actual
01:02:35 01:02:35 - interpretation like I’m I’m black and white on it not that everyone will agree with me is that um Jesus did what he did
01:02:42 01:02:42 - with gyrus his daughter you know said that she was just sleeping sends out the whole crowd all these people who would
01:02:47 01:02:47 - otherwise be Witnesses and then raises her from the dead so she was actually dead not sleeping but he says that she
01:02:53 01:02:53 - was sleeping since the people out and that’s to protect both um this this young woman and her family from the
01:03:00 01:03:00 - attention both from busy bodies and even the rulers who would you know not appreciate this person being a living
01:03:07 01:03:07 - proof of Jesus’s uh Power to do Miracles I me just as they were threatening uh Lazarus as we have in John 12:10 well
01:03:15 01:03:15 - Jesus protects them from that and he also tries not to draw attention to himself before his time and that is you
01:03:21 01:03:21 - know spoken of in other places we went over one such passage Mark 1: 40-45 talks about that phenomenon and
01:03:30 01:03:30 - finally uh we talked about Hebrews 9:27 this idea of it’s appointed once for man to die and after that the judgment and
01:03:38 01:03:38 - well what does that have to do with these folks who were resuscitated who were you know dead as in no longer
01:03:44 01:03:44 - breathing in the Tomb and then uh suddenly they come back to life in the bodies that they had before you know not
01:03:50 01:03:50 - resurrected with new Eternal bodies but uh you know resus itated coming back as they were before but then living a life
01:03:57 01:03:57 - but eventually facing that death that we all face as humans um so we we talked about how there’s a difference between
01:04:03 01:04:03 - resuscitation and resurrection and how that explains that Hebrews 9:27 here you know talking about when we Face the end
01:04:11 01:04:11 - of our lives where we don’t come back anymore even these folks who had that detour where they can’t they came back
01:04:17 01:04:17 - once eventually they will die and that will be it and then they will face God that’s what Hebrews 9:27 is getting at
01:04:24 01:04:24 - every every single person will face that that point of time from which there is no more uh time in this mortal world we
01:04:31 01:04:31 - run out of time we are there positionally in eternity after that um that’s what Hebrews 9:27 is getting at
01:04:37 01:04:37 - and only by trusting in Jesus Christ can we be on the right side of that judgment so I hope this was helpful I hope this
01:04:43 01:04:43 - has answered most of the questions and that’s where we’ll cut this one

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