The Unbeliever's Dilemma - [John 11:45-57]

I'd invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 11 as we finish the 11th chapter of the gospel of John Many of you have been asking when we would finish

John chapter 11. No, nobody's asked me that But it's today. We're finishing it today

Lord willing it's interesting to me that so many

Christians Christians so many people in the

Christian world Want to suppress the truth about Jesus Christ You say well, what are you talking about?

Well, I have an example. It just so happens. I have an example Just from a couple months ago for four years

Karen King and This is local news, by the way. She's a professor at the

Harvard School of Divinity She's the historian over there and she has been defending the so -called

Gospel of Jesus's wife She's been defending against scholars who argued that it was a forgery but here just less than two months ago she admitted

That this book that she'd been promoting since 2012 is probably fake she reached this conclusion after reading an article in a magazine about the papyruses origins

Papyrus is just a name for the the little piece of paper that was written on just refers to the material.

It's on this magazine Convinced her she said it tips the balance towards forgery

Now critics had argued for years that errors in Coptic grammar Similarities with the

Gospel of Thomas and for those of you who don't know the Gospel of Thomas is not your Bible For good reason it's it's what's called a

Gnostic book It was written years and years after all the Gospels were written and it's neither a gospel

Which means good news, nor was it written by Thomas, but I digress Similarities with the

Gospel of Thomas and other problems that all pointed to forgery, but King this doctor

Placed her faith in the opinions of expert papyrologists, which means they study little

Fragments of ancient paper along with a series of this is interesting Carbon dating and other scientific tests.

Listen. I said it was a local story at MIT Harvard and Columbia that had turned up no signs of modern tampering or forgery

Now what's interesting is if you if you look down the list of all the tests that she underwent She never bothered to compare it with what?

the Bible When the author of the magazine article called her in March this past March She said she was not interested in commenting on or even hearing about the findings of this article before publication in Mid June.

However, she called the author and said that the story was fascinating and very helpful

She recounted how she had exchanged numerous emails with the owner of this papyrus back in December of 2011

But she realized after reading the article in 2016 that she knew next to nothing about him His name was

Walder Fritz and he never mentioned the years that he spent at the free

University Egyptology Institute or that he had studied

Coptic remember there were problems with the Coptic grammar. He studied Coptic he also failed to mention that he had worked as a pornographer

Making movies with about his wife a woman who had written a book of universal truths and claimed to channel the voices of angels

Instead he presented himself as a family man who enjoyed trips to Disney World and was independently wealthy, etc, etc, etc

She says I had no idea about this guy. He Lied to me now.

She has a PhD from Brown University She's a professor at Harvard School of Divinity But she fought tenaciously for four years for something that any child in one of these classrooms

Any child maybe over the age of seven or eight could tell you was fake Why? Because she desperately wanted it to be true.

She desperately wanted the Jesus of this fake manuscript To be the real

Jesus She desperately wanted the Jesus of the Bible to be wrong.

Why was she so gullible? Why was she so easily hooked by a man who was a fraud? Even though she's very intelligent

She's also very much at enmity with God she doesn't love God or the

God of the Bible She hates the God of the Bible But in fact her actions are really similar to what a lot of unbelievers do and we'll see that this morning even in our text

John chapter 11 There's no fraudulent manuscript, but there's a lot of sinful thinking

John 11 verses 45 to 47 or I'm sorry to 57 Many of the

Jews therefore who had come with Mary and had seen what he did believed in him

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done So the chief priests and the

Pharisees gathered the council and said What are we going to do? For this man performs many signs if we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him and The Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation but one of them

Caiaphas who was high priest that year said to them You know nothing at all

Nor, do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people not that the whole nation should perish

He did not say this of his own accord but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation and Not for the nation only but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad

So from that day on they made plans to put him to death

Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews but went from there to the region near the wilderness to a town called

Ephraim Where and there he stayed with the disciples Now the

Passover of the Jews was at hand and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the

Passover to purify themselves They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple

What do you think? That he will not come to the feast after all

Now the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was

He should let them know so that they might arrest him As you can see we're getting very very

Close to the end and as we get closer John just will kind of slow down and he's going to recall a lot of Instruction that Jesus gives in the last days that he's on the earth

But just to kind of bring us up to where we are now John the

Apostle the beloved Apostle Man I've called Jesus best friend on earth

Wrote this gospel a few decades after the other ones after Matthew Mark and Luke so called synoptic gospels and His focus was on demonstrating that Jesus is

God that he is fully God in fact in John 20 31.

He writes the purpose of his gospel These things are written so that you the readers May believe that Jesus is the

Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name and So, you know pretty much regularly when

I preach when I've been preaching through this I conclude with a gospel presentation. Well, why is that because here's the purpose of the entire gospel so that you might believe

That Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name

Last week. We looked at the most profound demonstration of Jesus earthly ministry. I mean, what could be more spectacular?

More awe -inspiring more likely may I say to cause belief

Right Than raising Lazarus from the dead. What could be bigger than that?

What could possibly be a bigger demonstration of the power of God? Than raising

Lazarus from the dead, but this morning We're going to see the

Jewish Opposition to Jesus late in his ministry really kind of take shape harden

They're not backing down and this opposition is similar in Many ways to the opposition that we see against Jesus even today

We're going to have three kind of stepping stones here as we go through the text first. We're going to see Jesus feared

Then we're going to see Jesus condemned and then we're going to see Jesus pursued

Firstly Jesus feared now as we said last week in verse 45

Some who had accompanied Mary to the tomb believed. I mean What does it take if you see a

Lazarus Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb and you don't believe who he says that he is who he says he is then what is gonna convert you and the answer is apparently nothing in Fact if we look at verse verses 45 and 46

We're gonna see that some believed and some basically went to the theological police You know if they could have dialed 9 -1 -1 they would have done that Again, look at the text many of the

Jews therefore who had come with Mary and had seen what he did believed in him Which is what we would expect but some of them went to the

Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done Some saw the miracle they studied it.

They examined it. They believed Others saw it and did not believe But they didn't just not believe

They went to the Pharisees By raising

Lazarus from the dead Jesus effectively cut that group at the tomb into two parts believers and Enemies you say well not just unbelievers.

No, they're enemies Because they were motivated enough by what they saw

To not just say you know what I don't believe it You know must have been some kind of trick or something like that And if we if they knew the backstory

I'd I'd you know, I'd love to sit down with one of them So, what do you mean? He let the body stay in there for four days so that it's actually decomposed and then he raises it from the dead just by saying

Father, I'm glad that you've heard me Lazarus come forth the body Lazarus now, it's not a body anymore, but Lazarus comes forth even though he's all as we talked about last week he's bound by all these bandages and I didn't really want to demonstrate last week and I don't want to demonstrate this morning either because I might get hurt but You have to think that he almost had to hop to the front of the cave

And then they had to cut him loose from these things and in spite of that They don't believe

They were motivated enough to take action. Listen that they hoped would be detrimental to Jesus They were just innocent bystanders, they weren't just unconcerned they wanted to damage him

That's why they went to the Pharisees. They weren't trying to Convert the

Pharisees. No, there's an idea, right? They were really looking to put an end to Jesus ministry

And as a result of them going the Jewish leaders hold a meeting look at verse 47 So the chief priests and the

Pharisees Gathered the council and Said what are we to do for this man performs many signs if we let him go on like this

Everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation

This is like an emergency cabinet meeting, you know, let's get together everybody That's important and let's just we got to figure out what to do about this

Jesus guy These are the religious leaders of Israel, this is the

Sanhedrin it says in the ESV by the way, we were going through some of the verses in the

ESV this morning in Fundamentals of the faith and I have to say I Found maybe the ultimate really bad translation there, but I digress

This word counsel if you look at the Greek you'd say well, there's the word Sanhedrin That's the word it is the word so when

I say council or Sanhedrin those words are interchangeable a Sanhedrin session would be composed of chief priests and They would be mostly

Sadducees and Then the Pharisees this would be the most powerful people the people who controlled the temple religious life everything

They were studied. They were men of letters. They would be like today maybe like they would be dr.

King at Harvard with the letters and the robes and Hatred for Jesus and these studied powerful men were gripped by really fear

Now it's interesting that they don't deny that he did many signs in fact they say it this man does many signs

What do they mean by signs they meant miracles and if we just think about just some of the bigger ones that we've seen

What do you do a Man who'd been lame most of his life Restored him to full health so that he could walk

What was the Pharisees response? Anger why because he did it on the Sabbath healed the man born blind.

What was the Pharisees response? anger again the Sabbath And now he

Outdoes himself so to speak raise a man from the dead and what's their response panic?

Panic Now a reasonable thing to do I mean if you you know you hear this response all these people are coming to you from Lazarus funeral essentially

Essentially and they're saying Lazarus lives He's been raised from the dead now if it were you and you were an unbeliever try to put on your unbelieving

Thought process here just for a minute. What would you think you'd be thinking? This is kind of amazing Maybe I need to figure out who this

Jesus guy is In fact your response might be akin to whom? Nicodemus When he comes to him he comes to Jesus by night

And he says you know we know that the things that you do are from God, but how do you know who are you essentially?

right But they don't do that Then you think well,

I would believe it if I saw that well, they don't do that either Here's their concern if we don't put an end to this miracle worker

Everyone is going to believe in him We're gonna lose all of our flock all of our followers are gonna transfer their allegiance to him

Now it shows several things here, but I mean firstly miracles don't cause faith

Miracles don't cause faith we talked about the Red Sea. You know what happened after the Red Sea they immediately started worshiping a golden calf

What happened after Jesus fed the multitudes? At the

Sea of Galilee did they instantly believe in him no they wanted to take and make him king they have the wrong idea

Miracles don't convert people, but their concerns the

Sanhedrin was concerned with really politics They were looking for a political

Deliverer they were thinking about a political Messiah. They wanted somebody to throw off the yoke of Rome And so Jesus is doing these things these signs these miraculous signs

And they're they're concerned that everybody is going to believe in him and if that happens They didn't think believe as in faith.

They thought believe as in follow as in line up with him politically and then what

He's gonna try to get rid of Rome, and we're gonna be in trouble We're gonna be in big trouble

Because guess what? As soon as we rebel the Romans are gonna send their legions in and we're done, and that's what they say

They say the you know essentially we're going to lose our place and our nation.

What do they mean by that they were afraid that Rome was going to crush Israel and take away control of Jerusalem the temple and Maybe even kick all the people out of the land exile all the

Jews out of Israel, but in the midst of this discussion

About how they're worried about losing all their power and everything one man Finally lays out a plan so we've seen

Jesus feared now. We're gonna see him condemned look at verse 49 But one of them

Caiaphas who was a high priest that year said to them You know nothing at all

Now Caiaphas was in modern modern parlance the man You know in fact they should just call him the man if I were doing a translation.

I just say the man you know He was high priest. He was the highest authority in Judaism, and he was also as you could see right there

You know nothing. I mean, there's a fine conversation starter Is rude arrogance

Manipulative not to mention duplicitous in fact I was thinking you know what he's a man for our presidential campaign.

Oh, sorry He doesn't he doesn't talk to the other members of the

Sanhedrin Like they are his equals Like they're his advisors or like he cares about them at all

You emphatic put in a place of emphasis, you know, nothing you people are airheads

He was so full of himself that he's Virtually compelled to insult the

Sanhedrin before manipulating the situation in order to make himself look good Look what his plan is and it's on the surface.

It's very simple verse 50 You know nothing nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people

Not that the whole nation should perish I mean this is

Politician 101. I mean look at how he just turns it and says it is better for you

My concern is for you My fellow Sanhedrin it's whatever he called him. He's going to save the nation

And All it's going to cost is the life of one man all this destruction and death doesn't have to have to happen

We just have to get rid of one man Jesus of Nazareth the Sanhedrin had really worked his way in kind of a frenzy a panic and now

Caiaphas was Putting forth his plan, but he was really more concerned about his own preeminence than he was about anything else

So he frames killing Jesus really as the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few and for those of you

Who could finish that sentence shame on you? He uses nationalism nationalism as a motivation to put an end to the man

Christ Jesus To essentially as we'll see he's going to put out an arrest warrant for his death if Israel followed

Jesus The theory goes destruction would ensue on the other hand if Jesus were destroyed

Then Israel would be saved pretty basic The irony of course is if you know

The history of Israel what he's saying is exactly the opposite of what happened when they put

Jesus to death It's like what 35 38 years later

That Jerusalem, well the the Jews rebel against Rome and Jerusalem is sacked

The temple is destroyed and then 60 years after that They rebel again and all the

Jews by the power of the Roman Empire. All the Jews are put out of Israel They're all exiled.

So everything that they said that they were concerned about eventually happens In spite of the fact that they put

Jesus to death Now Caiaphas's words were much more significant than his plan than his stated plan.

Look at verse 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year.

He prophesied that Jesus would That he would die for the nation and not for the nation only but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad when they came out of his mouth these words from Caiaphas They were very well designed.

They were very political. They were very astute he would motivate first the

Sanhedrin and then the people by the sense of nationalism by the sense of overall that the good of the overall people the nation and instead ultimately of it being some kind of Evil edict where he said, you know,

Jesus has to die just because I want it that way which is closer to the truth He phrased it in such a way to make putting an innocent man to death seemed like a noble cause

But what he said had a meaning beyond what Caiaphas intended. He was responsible for what he said and for what he did

But God sovereignly intended something else what

Caiaphas meant for evil God meant for good as The high priest

Caiaphas technically had a position similar to an Old Testament prophet But he wasn't trying to act as God's mouthpiece.

In fact, his evil or his intention was entirely evil however

God is certainly capable of using the sin of men for his own sovereign purpose

Right man is responsible. God is sovereign As one man put it without becoming aware of it.

The villain had become the prophets Jesus would indeed die for a people

God's elect both Jew and Gentile who would be brought into one new entity two groups brought into one new entity of the church in fact

If you don't have to go there, but just think back to John 10 verse 16, what do you say about his sheep?

He said and I have other sheep That are not of this fold

I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock one shepherd

Now keeping your finger in John chapter 11 turn over for a moment to Ephesians chapter 2 and we typically look at you know the first 10 maybe 12 verses of this chapter and we are going to now look at verses 13 and 16 because It's the same thing that Paul's writing here

That the Lord is going to use the words of Caiaphas To bring about here

Ephesians 2 verses 13 to 16, but now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off that is to say

Exiles spiritual exiles and physical exiles. They were outside of Israel Have been brought near by the blood of Christ For he himself is our peace who has made both

Made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances Though the law was the dividing line between Israel and all the surrounding nations between Jews and Gentiles it separated them

It kept the Jews a peculiar people But in Christ who put an end to the law who abolished the law of commandments it says here.

That's all done Look, what's the purpose? Again in verse 15 that he might create in himself in Christ One new man in place of the two so making peace and might reconcile us both

Jew and Gentile to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility in the cross in the grace of Christ The hostility of the law between Jew and Gentile has been set aside.

So we're now one body in Christ Let's go back to John chapter 11

He died for a nation He died for a people and that people were

God's elect both Jew and Gentile Those who were scattered abroad now the

Sanhedrin Implement Caiaphas's plan look at verse 53

So from that day on they made plans to put him to death Now it's interesting in Jewish law.

It was Well, I'll just say in Jewish law you could not condemn a man to death and then execute him on the same day

Well now they had virtually condemned Jesus to death. They had an Official agreement as it were to put him to death

Which they all felt really good about because it benefited all the little people all the citizens whom they were so concerned about They weren't

And all they had to do was agree to put Jesus to death And so they vowed they got together and they they decided they were going to do this and they were going to pursue

Jesus to his death so we've seen Jesus feared Jesus condemned and Now Jesus pursued

Now we're not really told how Jesus knew we don't know if somebody Leaked it or if they put the word out, you know some kind of press bulletin and then

Jesus found out But we know that he knew because it's in the text verse 54

Jesus Therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews But went from there to the region near the wilderness to a town called

Ephraim and there he stayed with the disciples we don't know how he knew but he knew why because Therefore because of this edict from the

Sanhedrin He was no longer going to walk out in the open, but down he was going to be kind of laying low

So he leaves Bethany near Jerusalem And he goes out to a region near the wilderness to a town called

Ephraim and that's where he's kind of Laying low with his disciples. So was he afraid?

Was he afraid to be arrested? No, but it wasn't time yet.

He knew the end was near He knew it was getting closer But he also knew that this wasn't yet the time so he wasn't going to allow himself to be arrested now

Experts don't exactly know where Ephraim was But it's likely that it was about 14 or 15 miles

North by northeast of Jerusalem in an area obscure enough and rough enough.

So the Sanhedrin the Pharisees would not go out there and find him.

It's a place that they could basically hide out But not for long look at verse 55

Now the passage some time passes, we don't know exactly how long but now the Passover of the

Jews was at hand and Many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves so at hand makes it seem like It's happening

But that's not quite right because it it was just near it was close It was coming

It's like, you know if I said I wouldn't say this but if I said Chris well better example is if I said

Labor Day is Approaching. Well, it's not Labor Day yet, but it's not that far off The text says that many

Jews were going up to Jerusalem and it should give you the idea again These gigantic festivals that would occur during the year

Everybody would come from all the regions of Israel from outside of Israel Into Jerusalem to celebrate these things

And of course, we know that Jesus is the Passover lamb

And this is going to be the last Passover of his human life the last

Celebration that he would ever see we're not far from Palm Monday as it were and The word was out.

Jesus was a wanted man. Look at verse 56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another these

Jews who had come early into town as they stood in the temple What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all

Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was he should let them know

So that they might arrest him You could almost picture a couple of Jewish pilgrims

Having traveled some way, you know, and they're now in the temple and they've gone through some purification rituals

And they're just kind of catching up on family things and then they're like, well, what about this Jesus? What about this guy that they're saying that they want to arrest?

You don't think that he's gonna come to Jerusalem for For the

Passover do you you know and and the idea is absolutely not he'd be Nuts to come because they're looking for him.

They're gonna go everywhere. They can to find him and and Look, they they not only want to find him, but they're going to Basically, I mean the implied result here of 57 is if anyone knows where he is and doesn't tell us then what?

You're an accessory and you're subject to arrest. You better tell us what we want to know Jesus feared

Jesus condemned Jesus pursued I said in the beginning unbelievers

They reinvent Jesus Like Karen King they want to find the

Jesus who is Or they they don't they find the man who is

Fully man and fully God Jesus Christ. They find him offensive They find that they don't want the one who's going to come back and judge all of mankind

So they make him nicer and it's not just forgeries like the so -called gospel of Jesus's wife

There are other examples even in our culture. We think about I understand they're making another

Da Vinci code movie They can't make enough of these things to try to assault Christianity There's the search for the historical

Jesus because what's the implication of the search for the historical Jesus? That the Gospels themselves that the

Bible can't be relied upon They're going at it from every possible angle a few years ago was the

So -called ossuary of James, you know that if if what the inscription said on this ossuary was correct

Then that would undermine the virgin birth Why is there so much effort and so much imagination spent on Assaulting the person of the work of Jesus Christ Think about the

Bible's attacked Why Well the same reason that Satan attacked it in the

Garden of Eden the Word of God anyway, not the Bible but the Word of God Because if you can undermine that you can get people to believe anything

His existence is even questioned or was questioned and I've had unbelievers tell me that you know

That this is just like so many other religions that predate Christianity by Centuries Why do you want to be a

Christian? His miracles are denied Since the Enlightenment since mankind became so brilliant They've denied the the miracles in fact

Thomas Jefferson if you recall he even cut the miracles of Jesus out of the Bible why because No intelligent person could believe that a man could do those things and even the

Jews who saw them didn't believe The Christ of Scriptures is terrifying to the carnal mind the idea that Jesus is the creator and sustainer of all life

That he alone is the source of resurrection That he alone is a source of eternal life that he alone could pay the price for sin be the

Lamb of God That he alone is the soon returning King and judge of all mankind

It's terrifying because they've spent their entire lives denying the reality of sin

Follow your heart do what you feel is right do whatever pleases you After all if you don't hurt anyone else how bad can it be but all that the

Bible says about Christ is true Everything that it says about sin is true

Everything that it says about the holiness and wrath of God is true Hell is a real place reserved for those who reject

Christ And here's the choice today.

We talked about there being two groups of people. There are believers and there are unbelievers There are sheep and there are goats and on Judgment Day he will say what?

Either well done or depart from me and for those that he says depart from me

What awaits them a punishment beyond belief for their sins their failure to obey the law

But the truth is no one obeys the law No one except Jesus Christ alone

He obeyed the law in the place of believers he died in the place of believers and he was raised on the third day and All who believe in him will never suffer the wrath of God for unbelievers

Jesus is feared condemned Pursued for believers

For believers He's worshipped He's obeyed

He's followed He's loved What have you today?

What have you done with the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you believed in him? Have you trusted him?

Friends if not, I pray that today would be the day That you would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

Let's pray Father in heaven we look at the plans of an evil man like Caiaphas so set upon Preserving himself and his power in the station

Keeping the people ignorance using their false sense of patriotism and nationalism

To cover the fact that he wanted to murder the Lord Jesus Christ a man he saw as His rival as a problem

Father your plan was something else entirely Your plan was for the

Lord Jesus Christ to die to suffer that a people might be eternally redeemed

Your concern wasn't temporal your concern wasn't the nation of Israel whom you already knew would be destroyed

Father your concern was the eternal souls of men What a wonderful Savior is

Jesus Christ Lord, we give you all the praise and all the glory for your wonderful plan of salvation