But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?”And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?But some of them said, Could not this man, who opened the eyes of him that was blind, have caused that this man also should not die?
3 sermons cite this verse
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. I bet you'd have a seat. so uh one of my uh we a lot of us have guilty pleasure things right so i one of my guilty pleasure uh tv shows i don't know why but all of them almost all of them are surround reality tv i don't know why maybe it's me you're escaping reality by going to reality tv but one of these shows i haven't watched in a while one of these shows was a tv show called the bar rescue and the bar rescue it was always the same setup bar rescue it's one of those kind of genre like a homestead rescue where the expert rescuer comes in. So bar rescue is always the same story. It was this bar that was struggling. They were in debt. They didn't know how to run a bar. And here all of a sudden they bring in John Taffer. John Taffer is the expert rescuer. And again, it's always the same. They set up cameras in the bar and he's going to watch. He's doing a stakeout. And it's one night and he's in his escalade out in the parking lot with maybe his assistants. And they sent, I sent some people into the bar to see what they're doing, right? And he watches until he can't taken anymore. He's like, I got to go in there. He comes in. He just yells at everybody. He yells at the staff. He yells at the owners. He yells at everyone out of here. And he just, you know, …
I often hear this preached on in the church, and the preacher will say, and Jesus cried with a loud voice, Lazarus. If we're true to the text, what is it saying? That when Jesus stood in front of this open tomb with the corpse of Lazarus inside, He shouted into the tomb saying, Lazarus, come forth. Now I think it's important that we pause for a moment on that because this is how God Almighty created the universe. Out of nothing, He creates the world by the power of His divine call. By His Word, He creates all that there is. And so by His Word, Christ empowers a corpse to come back to life. And as soon as Jesus cries in that loud voice and gives the imperative of God Himself to the dead Lazarus, that heart began to beat and began to pump blood through his vessels. Brain waves began. The rotting tissue became healed. Strength entered back into him, and Lazarus, who had died, came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, his face wrapped in a cloth, but he was alive. And Jesus said to those there, loose him and let him. …
"And some of them saaid—Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" John 11:37. HERE was very good reasoning. Jesus Christ had opened the eyes of the blind—could He not, therefore, have healed Lazarus of the disease which proved fatal? Of course He could! He who can avert one evil can avert another. It could have been no more difficult for Christ to have turned aside the fever, or whatever it may have been which afflicted Lazarus, than to have opened the eyes of a man who was born blind. The first was impossible, but that achieved, no difficulties remained. "Impossible" is a word which does not fall into language when you have to deal with Christ and, therefore, when He has once proved, by a miracle, that He is truly the Christ, then it is clear that, ever afterwards, nothing is difficult or impossible for Him. The same Truth of God, in another shape, holds good, namely, that when Christ has conferred one blessing, He can also confer another. He is not as we are, who, with one gift, have exhausted our stock and who can only bestow good wishes afterwards because we have no more means. But Jesus Christ is just as full of power as if He had never exerted that power. And after a thousand miracles, He is just as willing and as able to bestow further favors! One evil averted is a good argument that another can be—one good received is a good argument that another may be received from the same Divine hand! …