Oct. 12, 2025

Four Days Late, Right On Time

Send us a text A four-day tomb, a public prayer, a single command—and a man walks out alive. We open John 11 with fresh eyes to watch Jesus delay on purpose, meet grief with tears and truth, and turn a funeral into a furnace of faith. From Martha’s honest ache to the leaders’ anxious plots, the story reveals more than a miracle; it shows a Savior whose timing disrupts our fear and reshapes our future. As we trace the arc from Bethany to our moment, we face hard questions about violence, mora...

Send us a text

A four-day tomb, a public prayer, a single command—and a man walks out alive. We open John 11 with fresh eyes to watch Jesus delay on purpose, meet grief with tears and truth, and turn a funeral into a furnace of faith. From Martha’s honest ache to the leaders’ anxious plots, the story reveals more than a miracle; it shows a Savior whose timing disrupts our fear and reshapes our future.

As we trace the arc from Bethany to our moment, we face hard questions about violence, moral drift, and what happens when the church grows drowsy. Laws can restrain, but only transformed hearts renew; strategies matter, but they can’t replace repentance. We talk about the gap between our urgency and God’s pace, and why that gap is often the very ground where belief is born. Along the way, we name the practices that keep hope sturdy—prayer that isn’t performative, Scripture that forms the mind, service that trains the hands, and fellowship that pulls grave clothes off people finding life again.

This conversation is both a wake-up and a hand up. If delay has made you cynical, come hear why Jesus is never late to mercy. If the headlines have worn you thin, listen for the voice that still calls the dead to rise and the weary to stand. Subscribe, share with a friend who could use courage today, and leave a review to help others find their way back to hope.

"The Flowers You Are Picking Today Come From the Seeds You Planted Yesterday. Don't Like Your Boquet Of Flowers? Then Change the Seeds You Are Planting Today." Chaplain Terry

00:11 - Setting The Scripture

00:23 - The Lazarus Story Begins

01:05 - Delay, Death, And Purpose

02:17 - Martha’s Faith And Jesus’ Claim

03:58 - Weeping, Anger, And The Miracle

05:33 - Leaders React And Plot

06:43 - From Miracle To Modern Violence

07:22 - Cultural Drift And Its Roots

08:25 - Not Too Late For God

10:18 - Blessing, Updates, And Closing

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Hello friend, Chaplain Terry Warner here.

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I'm starting with John chapter eleven today, and I'm going to read you a little story that I think you'll like out.

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This is John chapter eleven.

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Do you remember Mary who poured the costly perfume on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair?

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Well, her brother Lazarus, who lived in Bethany with Mary and her sister Martha, was sick.

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So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, Sir, your good friend is very, very sick.

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But when Jesus heard about it, he said, The purpose of his illness is not death, but for the glory of God.

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I, the Son of God, will receive glory from this situation.

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Although Jesus was very fond of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days and made no move to go to them.

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Finally, after the two days he said to his disciples, let's go to Judea.

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But his disciples objected.

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Master, they said, only a few days ago the Jewish leaders in Judea were trying to kill you.

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Are you going there again?

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Jesus replied, There are twelve hours of daylight every day, and during every hour of that a man can walk safely and not stumble.

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Only at night is there danger of a wrong step because of the dark.

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Then he said, Our friend Lazarus has gone to sleep, but now I will go and waken him.

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The disciples, thinking Jesus meant Lazarus was having a good night's rest, said, That means he is getting better, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died.

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Then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I wasn't there, for this will give you another opportunity to believe in me.

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Come, let's go to him.

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Thomas nicknamed the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let's go to and die with him.

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When they arrived at Bethany, they were told that Lazarus had already been in his tomb for four days.

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Bethany was only a couple miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish leaders had come to pay their respects and to console Martha and Mary on their loss.

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When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

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Martha said to Jesus, Sir, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

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And even now it's not too late, for I know that God will bring my brother back to life again if you will only ask him to.

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Jesus told her, Your mother will come back to life again.

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Yes, Martha said, when everyone else does on resurrection day.

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Jesus told her I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again.

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Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again.

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He has given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish.

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Do you believe this, Martha?

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Yes, master, she told him, I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one we have so long awaited.

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Then she left him and returned to Mary, and calling her aside from the monument mourners, told her he is here and wants to see you.

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So Mary went to him at once.

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Now Jesus had stayed outside the village at the place where Martha met him.

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When the Jewish leaders who were at the house tried to console Mary, saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus' tomb to weep, so they followed her.

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When Mary arrived where Jesus was, she fell down at his feet, say, Sir, if you had been here, my brother would still be alive.

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When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jewish leaders wailing with her, he was moved with indignation and deeply troubled.

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Where is he buried?

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he asked.

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They told him, Come and see.

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Tears came to Jesus' eyes.

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They were close friends, the Jewish leader said.

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See how much he loved him.

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But some said, This fellow healed a blind man.

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Why couldn't he keep Lazarus from dying?

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And again Jesus was moved with deep anger.

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Then they came to the tomb.

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It was a cave with a heavy stone rolled across its door.

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Roll the stone aside, Jesus told them.

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But Martha, the dead man's sister, said, By now the smell will be terrible, for he has been dead four days.

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But didn't I tell you that when you will see a wonderful miracle from God if you believe?

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Jesus asked her.

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So they rolled the stone aside.

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Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, thank you for hearing me.

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You always hear me, of course.

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But I said it was because of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.

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Then he shouted, Lazarus, come out, and Lazarus came.

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Bound up in the grave cloth, his face muffled in the head swath, Jesus told them, Unwrap him and let him go.

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And so at last, many of the Jewish leaders were who were with Mary and saw it happen, finally believed on him.

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But Jesus but some went away to the Pharisees and reported it to them.

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Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened a council to discuss the situation.

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What are we going to do?

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They asked for each other.

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For this man certainly does miracles.

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If we let him alone, the whole nation will follow him, and then the Roman army will come and kill us and take over the Jewish government.

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And one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said, You stupid idiots, let this one man die for the people.

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Why should the whole nation perish?

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This prophecy that Jesus should die for the entire nation came from Caiapus in his position as high priest.

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He didn't think of it by himself, but was inspired by the Spirit to say it.

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It was a prediction that Jesus' death would not be for Israel only, but for all the children of God scattered around the world.

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When he's four days late.

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The first event was the assassination of President John Kennedy, then Dr.

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Martin Luther King, then Robert Kennedy.

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Making sense out of any assassination is impossible.

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Yet we have disturbed individuals, thinking they can repair society by elimination of people.

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Now Charlie Kirk has got everyone asking and wondering how to stop these insane acts.

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Violence can, in most cases, be restrained and reduced through laws and behavior.

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Eliminating it completely will not happen until Jesus returns and confines the devil and the demons to their destination.

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As to why these dreadful acts were perpetuated is directly the result of not obeying God's laws and decrees.

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Organized prayer, and to include not being allowed to read the Bible in our school started this calamity.

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On april eighth, nineteen sixty six, the cover of Time magazine was Is God Dead?

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It is a rhetorical question, but it was the beginning of drifting into paganism, and then into the nineteen sixties with the addition of free love and mind altering drugs.

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Timothy O'Leary and Behavior Modification, we lost control of the younger generation and hurled ourselves into full rebellion against God.

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What did we think the outcome would be?

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Were we so dense as a society that we thought we could thumb our noses at God and not suffer any consequences?

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Evidently the answer would be yes.

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Now with the recent murder of Charlie Kirk, instead of being four days late, we find our society to be over forty years late.

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Is it too late for a lot of us?

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Fortunately it is not too late for Jesus.

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Rest assured Jesus is coming back and will restore complete order.

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But we must rise to the occasion and wake up to a cold hearted, sleeping church that is powerless and steeped in apostasy.

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I for one don't want to be having to make excuses when Christ returns Matthew twelve thirty six.

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Instead of preparing for the return of Christ, we find ourselves shaking our heads, wringing our hands, and wondering why God doesn't do something.

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In the meantime, our Bibles sit unused on a shelf and gather dust.

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We are sort of like a fire department, never training, and then one day we receive a fire call, but the fire truck won't start.

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It is extremely difficult to turn any nation in the realm of social divigation.

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However, we must arouse ourselves and turn our nation nation back toward God, or else we are doomed to drift further away and pass the point of being able to repent.

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It may be already too late for us, but it's not too late for God.

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He can and will upright everything if we only trust to Him, confess our sins and His Lordship over our lives.

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You must understand with God there is no such thing as being late or out of reach.

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There's only repentance, confession, and trust in Jesus Christ.

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That very ordained promise of God will be immediately activated by us.

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Give your hearts to Jesus Christ today and let us begin to turn this nation and ourselves back to God.

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Friend, this has been Chaplain Terry Warner.

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My podcasts come out every Monday morning.

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When you go to my website, thechaplainscorner.net, there will be a drop-down menu for my website.

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The Chaplain's Corner podcast and articles are being used for Bible lessons and sermon notes for home and small church groups in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Africa, including Kenya, and other places all over the world, including the United States and North America.

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Your donations are not tax deductible.

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However, all monies donated will be used strictly for this ministry.

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Thank you so much for listening to my podcast.

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The Lord bless you and keep you.

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The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

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The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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