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