John 11:45-53 (The Enemy Who Prophesied)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

I think one of my favorite attributes of God and you know

How can you have a favorite because he's perfect in every single one of his attributes, right? But I think probably one of my favorite attributes is his sovereignty.

I Mean, I love God's love and I'm thankful for his justice. I'm fearful and tremble over his holiness

I adore his mercy and his grace. I'm in all of his purity and righteousness Blown away by his omniscience omnipotence omnipresence and a seiya t.

Those are big words. It just means God is infinite in every realm But for me

Knowing that God is sovereign brings all of his power all of his ability all of his care all of his love all of his kingship perfectly into the realm of my tangible existence

It brings all of God's attributes into the place where I can experience them. For instance, I can sleep

Knowing that God is sovereign Because if God is in control of all things and that nothing happens outside of God's will

Then what do I have to fear? What do I have to fear? What do we have to fear if God is in control?

We can rest knowing that nothing is going to thwart his plan. We can rest knowing that everything we do experience is

What God wanted us to experience? that sometimes that's hard to swallow but if you get that if you understand that nothing is accidental to God the pain the

Pleasure the good things the bad things the trying things the easy things all of it is From the hand of God James says that there's nothing that comes to us.

That's not a good gift from our Heavenly Father Who's the father of lights? Everything that we've been given is from God for us

And if we can understand that then there's no pain or pleasure that will master you Because you know who

God is You know that he's in control Now we see the sovereignty of God play out in various different ways in the

Old Testament Not just in in in that sort of general way We see it where he uses people who are who we may want to call

Saints to do his work And then we see him using people who are scoundrels and sinners

We see God speaking through a zealous prophet and yet we see him communicating through a stubborn donkey

God is totally wonderfully beautifully majestically in control over all things

There's many examples in Scripture of this but today I think we're gonna get to examine one of the most poignant examples of God's sovereignty in speaking through someone who hates

Christ and yet proclaims one of the clearest examples of the gospel that can be found anywhere in the

Bible a man who doesn't believe in Jesus many wants to see

Jesus murdered and yet Proclaims the gospel in such a way that convicts him convicts the nation and ministers to you and I today

Today I want us to accomplish three things. I Want us to see that Jesus had an intended effect

Like we've said last week Jesus does things to get an effect He does things to to push people to make a decision either a strongly opposed to Jesus decision or a strongly for Jesus Decision but no matter what he does something to divide we will see that today the second thing we're gonna see is how one group who was pushed further so far into their hatred that they're ready to murder

Jesus and This is sort of the climax of that. We've been building towards that in John 2

John 5 John 7 John 10 Now it's getting serious It was serious before now, it's really serious

This is what happens when you speak in hyperbole sometimes and Then the third thing

I want us to do is I want us to see how This man who hated Christ declared the gospel

We're gonna look at these three things the effect that Jesus produced the execution that they proposed and the enemy

Who prophesied the gospel? So if you will turn with me to John 11 44 through 53 as we examine this text together

John 11 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he had done believed in him but some of them went to the

Pharisees and Told them the things which Jesus had done therefore the chief priest and the

Pharisees convened a council and We're saying what are we doing? For this man is performing many signs if we let him go on like this all men will believe in him

They talk like that's a problem 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 of them, you know nothing at all

Nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man died for the people and that the whole nation not perish

Now he did not say this on his own initiative But being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation and Not for the nation only but in order that he might also gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad

So from that day on they planned together to kill him Let's pray Lord.

We thank you for your sovereign hand your sovereign control your sovereign plan

It's been three and Almost a half years of ministry for you in this passage.

You're one week away from your death at many points

You were threatened but your hour had not yet come and Lord we know that you sovereignly stewarded your life your ministry and Even the response that people would give you so that you would not die a second earlier or a second later than you had planned

Lord as we see this council being convened here in John 11 Where the high priest is involved

We're now there's a national manhunt being put out for you

Lord. We don't look at you as the victim We look at you as the one who has your own life in your hands who willingly gave it up Who joyfully gave it up who purposefully gave it up?

So that you could bring many sons to glory Lord we love you. We praise you. We ask that you write these truths on our heart today

In Christ's name. Amen As we said last week Jesus does many things in order to get a reaction out of people

We see earlier in the synoptic Gospels He ate with sinners in Luke 15 and he does this for a twofold purpose he ate with sinners so that he could bless them and so he could say salvation has come into the house of Matthew today or of Zacchaeus today, but he also eats with sinners in order to infuriate the

Pharisees It's a twofold purpose He has a woman wash his feet in A Pharisee well -to -do

Pharisees house. She washes his feet with her hair. She washes his feet with her tears He did that to show that even a scandalous

Woman who all the Pharisees would have written off as being too far too far gone way outside the kingdom of God he did that to show that no one is too far gone for his kingdom and he did that to infuriate the religious people who thought that they were the ones who could

Who could had the keys to the kingdom of heaven and they could say that woman's not worthy. They were too far gone

He did both of those Reactions and we did that reaction to provoke one to love him one to hate him

He talked to the dishonorable Samaritan woman an entire town gets saved and then his disciples are confused

He healed someone on the Sabbath in John chapter 5 in that one ironically

It's the one who heals him who turns on him and turns him into the Pharisees like Judas before Judas He tells them to eat his flesh and drink his blood in John chapter 6 and some of them say that's a hard statement

Who in the world could follow that and they run away from Jesus and they they write Jesus off and then his disciples say where?

Could we go? You're the one who has the words of life He opened the tomb of Lazarus and let out

All of the chemistry that had been brewing in that tomb that we talked about last week Some were offended some

Believed Jesus doing everything that he's doing in the Gospels to produce an effect

He either wants you to love him and to lay down your life To lay down your cross to follow him or to pick up your cross and follow him or he wants you to hate him and Cheer crucify him crucify him.

There is no middle ground with Jesus. That's what we learn It is

Jesus the one who said That if you're wish that you were either hot or cold because if you were lukewarm,

I will spew you out of my mouth What I find so fascinating disturbing and shocking is

That Jesus's entire ministry was about eliminating the middle and yet I would say the vast majority of the church today lives there

The vast majority of the church lives in the lukewarm apathetic mediocre half -hearted affections for Christ The sort of get out of hell

Jeep free card the sort of fire insurance the sort of I raised my hand I did my part now. I'm gonna live however

I want. That's the majority of Christianity in America today Jesus did not even allow the possibility for that kind of Christianity to exist

I think I think that we've forgotten in some ways who

Christ is I pray it's not this church I'm speaking more generally more broad now, but I think that when we get to that place, we've forgotten who

Jesus is That he said I didn't come for peace. I came to bring the sword I came to turn father away from son mother away from daughter.

I came to divide he says these things and We see that in this passage verse 45 and 46 says therefore many of the

Jews who came to Mary and Saw what he had done believed in him But some of them went to the

Pharisees and told them the things which he had done Again, we see a twofold response now perhaps

This twofold response is the same groups of people that we saw last week The ones who said look at Jesus look how much he loves

Lazarus, maybe they were the ones that believed here and Maybe the ones who called him a hypocrite basically and said the same one who opened the eyes of the blind couldn't even healed this

Man Lazarus, maybe they were the ones who didn't believe we don't know how this split up Maybe there was some from the first camp that moved over to the second camp

We don't know but what we do know is that it says that many of them believed

The majority of the crowd that was there at the tomb and Bethany were transferred out of death to life

They believed what Jesus Christ had done. That is astounding. This is one of the first times in the gospel where the majority believe in Jesus Generally speaking.

It's the minority that believe in Jesus and it's even more astounding than that Because when you understand who this crowd is

Then understanding that they Majority wise chose Jesus is astounding.

John says that this crowd is the Jews There is only one passage in the gospel of John Which speaks of the

Jews when you see the Jews speaks of it positively. It's this one the

Jews It could either be talking about the feast of the Jews or it could be talking about the group of people when it's talking about The group of people it is almost entirely focused on how negative they are on how much they hate

Jesus it was the Jews in John chapter 2 that argued with Jesus about the temple

It was the Jews who persecuted Jesus in John 5 after he healed the man on the Sabbath It was the

Jews These were the words of John who grumbled against him in John 6 the ones who sought to kill him in John 7 the ones

Accused him of having a demon in John 8 the ones who picked up stones to murder him in John 10

Some in the crowd in this passage could have had rocks in their hands in John 10

Ready to fling them at Jesus and now it says that the many believed the many the many believed

After seeing Jesus's reaction To Lazarus how he was angry over the effect of death and the effect of sin on the world after they saw him

Weeping over his friend and after they saw the emotions and after they saw Jesus call Lazarus out of the tomb by his word alone

Which is something that only Yahweh does Yahweh speaks in universes get created

Jesus speak and death comes to life that when they saw that Convinced them some of them

Were haters of Jesus actively speaking because they were a group of the

Jews They believed because this event happened. They were eyewitnesses to it

Now what I think is so fascinating about this. It's a little side point If you go to a liberal seminary and unfortunately, if you go to a evangelical seminary today

There'll be many professors who say You know, I don't think this event happened. Maybe Lazarus was just in there taking a four -day nap

In that astounding that we 2 ,000 years later can say I don't think that happened when the people who hated

Jesus did not deny it They saw Lazarus from the dead. They thought it was so stupid to claim that that Lazarus was not risen from the dead that they wouldn't even dare write it down on paper and Yet we today in our pretentiousness because it doesn't fit our narrative, you know,

I don't know I don't think Jesus actually did that Give me a break

What's more important than that is? That this passage tells us that there's no one too far gone to be welcomed into the kingdom of God You think about these men and women haters of God Former enemies the ones who opposed him the ones who mocked him the ones who were loyal to the

Pharisee Party the ones who never Imagined a moment where they would follow Jesus anywhere and yet now they've been converted

This passage is a type of What Jesus has done for us? Think about it

Lazarus was a man who was raised physically and then everybody starts coming to faith, which is spiritual resurrection

That's the same thing that happened to you and I in Christ Christ physically resurrected from the dead you and I heard the good news about it we saw the effect of the gospel and we came running out of the tomb because his

Gospel called us out This is a type for what has happened to us these

Jews that were converted. That's us We were haters of God. We were the ones who opposed him

We were the ones who could never imagine a moment of our life being submitted to the Lordship of Christ We were the ones in bondage to our sin broken over our failure

We were the ones who were were maybe atheist at one point maybe agnostic maybe anything else

But we never could have imagined in our sin that we would have followed after Jesus or maybe

We were like the religious Jews and we thought that we were following God and we missed it because of our religiosity

No matter how you shake it. This is us We were the dead ones who've been made alive by the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ His physical resurrection

Woke us up Spiritually gave us a new heart new mind new eyes new thoughts new affections

So that we're not the same we went from being Enemies of God to friends of God.

Do you know how astounding that statement is? Don't let it go past you We became friends with God There is no king

Who has conquered an enemy territory Where he took the rebels the ones who had the the weapons of war and then invited them to his table to feast

At best they would become slaves of the king and yet the

New Testament tells us that we're not only slaves of Christ We're also friends of God That's unbelievable

We've been made God's friends through Christ It's unbelievable through the life -changing power of the resurrection

There is justification and now through his ongoing work of sanctification. We have been made lovers of God to the glory of God No one in this room is too far gone for God you think about it

Maybe you've done some awful sin Maybe there's something in your heart that you've never told anyone else in this room

There's something in there that when you look in the mirror you see it when you're by yourself you think about it

You put on a face and you try to pretend like that that thing is not a part of you That's not something that you've done.

That's not some way that you've betrayed your friend or betrayed your spouse That there's something in all of us

At one point or another that eats away at us that says I'm not worthy everyone in this room

I guarantee you has come to a point where you said is Am I worthy to be saved? Can I possibly be saved?

It's God good enough and powerful enough to save me All of us have had those doubts

Some stronger than others But knowing what God has done here

Reminds us what God has done here God saved enemies and rebels.

Do you not think he can save you? Think about the Apostle Paul The Apostle Paul was on his way to murder

Christians when Jesus came knocked him off his horse blinded him and He became a friend of God Paul the murderer of Christians You think if God can't if God can save a man like Paul that he can't save you

None of us in this room are as bad as Paul was Maybe maybe some of you were on your way to kill

Christians But you should talk about that in your membership interview and we want to make sure that that's still not a thing

None of us have done that Paul is Paul has major leagues when it comes to sin.

He says I'm the chief of sinners If God can save a man like Paul surely he can save you.

There's no one that's too far gone for the kingdom of God If Christ calls you you will come if Christ calls you like he did to Lazarus.

I don't care if you've been dead 4 ,000 days You will come the worst thing that you can do is wallow in the muck of your sin as Calvinist and as Reformed folks

We like to talk about how wretched we are We are we're filthy rags.

We're worms But at the same time we we we can never forget the dual identity that we have

Yes in our flesh. We're wretched. Yes in our flesh. We're odious Without the covering of Christ we would be a stench in the nostrils of God.

It's all true But with Christ and what Christ has done You've been made beautiful to God You've made a friend of God.

I Want you to live in that identity? I Don't want you to think you know that That you know, you can do nothing wrong

Roman 7 still exists I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things that I do, you know, that's still true

But please don't wallow in self -pity Please don't please don't sit down in the muck and say that I'm not worthy of this and I'm not worthy of that.

You're not That's half of the story The other part of the story is that the one who is worthy did

The Christ who is worthy reached down and grabbed you and saved you and pulled you out so that when you

Begin to grumble and say that I'm too much of a sinner for God to save me

You're claiming a power that you don't have because there's no one in this room that can pry you out of the hands of God Not even you

If God has saved you you are saved Accept that believe that hold your head high in that That's the first response

Those who believed in Jesus those who followed him those who rejoiced As we've been noticing there's a division, right?

The second group of people hated him says in verse 46 But some of them the other part of the

Jews Went to the Pharisees and they told them the things that he had done What they tell him

They said that he rose someone from the dead They said hey when the tomb was empty we smelled it

He was dead Maybe that's why Jesus opened the tomb and then said a prayer just to make sure everyone in the in the group could smell it

There was no doubt that Lazarus was dead and then all of a sudden he's back alive again

What do you want us to do with that? I can imagine them going to the Pharisees and being like Can you please?

Can't we try to understand this in some way other than this man is God, please like who in the world could do that and Instead of that the

Pharisees give this shocking response You'd think that they would get down on their knees and they would say dear

God. I've missed it This man is the Christ. He is God You would have think that they would have ran back to the tomb and they would have wrapped their arms around Jesus They would have bowed down and worshiped him.

They were said you are king and yet They say you're right.

This is a problem. We can't have God in our country We can't have God going around raising people from the dead.

Let's kill him Do you see the depths that our sin takes us down to how blind our sin makes us?

You and I is redeemed people who can't even possibly imagine what it was like to have that kind of thought process

Let it just be a reminder to us of how far Jesus has brought us Because the depths of sin will cause you to look at the resurrection of a four -day dead man and say

Something we got to handle instead of this is something I've got to worship. They convene this council this council was a combination of the elite people of the

Jewish Society the powerful mob lords in Jerusalem the ones who had the money to pay for the position

Their objective was to join forces to destroy Jesus Says in verses 47 through 48 therefore the chief priests and the

Pharisees convened a council and We're saying what are we doing? That's a good question

What are you doing? Maybe you should stop for a second and just sit on that question

For this man is performing many signs If we let him He just rose a man from the dead and you have the audacity to say if we let him

If we let him go on like this Then all men will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation

They understood the ramifications that this was life -changing This wasn't

Jesus feeding people from heaven anymore with bread multiplying bread. This wasn't Jesus Healing someone on the

Sabbath, although that was bad enough This was a miracle that now demanded their immediate attention because they realized that it would have national religious historical and theological impact on that community

They understood that this miracle Was the seventh miracle that Jesus had done.

Maybe they didn't realize that but we do in the Gospel of John this is number seven, which means that it is the the apex of Jesus's miraculous ministry in the

Gospel of John it is the quintessential miracle of Jesus It is the one that most clearly and most fully shares the power shares his divinity shares his life

John says the purpose of his gospel is that we would believe that Christ is the the Messiah the Son of God and that by Believing in him will have life in his name this miracle accomplished that better than all of them it was the pinnacle of his miraculous ministry and It was the moment the

Pharisees probably realized that the miracles weren't gonna get smaller They started out he turned over some tables

He healed a couple people He fed some people with bread that we still don't understand how that went but this time

This miracle was bigger than anything that had ever been done before They could look back and they could see the

Egyptian sorcerers who could produce The sort of water that turned to blood and they could they could see that the

Babylonian Magicians they could do some tricks and maybe they could write off Jesus They could even look back to their own people in the

Old Testament and say maybe Jesus a prophet But he's not the Son of God.

I think about Moses Elijah Joshua and my shot. Those are the four men that have a miraculous ministry in the

Old Testament Moses did many miracles in front of the people. They hated him Joshua prayed the son stood still he done miracles.

They didn't listen to him Elijah and Elisha the Kings tried to kill they made axe head floats axe heads float

They made fire come down from heaven and they raised a couple young kids from the dead One time

Elisha was dead and the man fell on his bones and he was raised from the dead. That's impressive But nothing is like this

After four days of being dead Lazarus was risen. Nothing is like that.

I Grabbed something from the interweb to try to explain how a magnificent this is

I'm gonna read like medically what happens to us when we've been dead four days It is astounding what

Jesus did. This is what it says as Soon as death occurs the body temperature starts cooling to match the surrounding temperature without blood and oxygen

Muscular tissues become rigid and the blood pools in the lower extremities Then as the bacteria in the intestines devour the intestinal walls devour the intestinal walls

Cells lose their structural integrity and Cellular enzymes are released to begin breaking down the billions of cells themselves and surrounding tissue

Microbes start breaking down carbohydrates proteins and lipids Most of the breakdown occurs inside of the body and is not yet visible from the outside That's stage one and it says at the end of the stage

This is gross blow fives and flesh flies arrived to lay eggs Probably wasn't the case for Lazarus.

He'll his tomb was sealed stage two stage two begins in this in this window of time as well as bacteria multiply and process bodily materials

They produce gases such as methane carbon dioxide nitrogen hydrogen sulfide which bloat the body

These gases build up pressure in the body and they push the fluids out of the natural openings including the mouth nose and anus if insects are present maggots begin to hatch and feed on body tissue causing skin to slip and hair to detach and the surface to rupture

These additional openings provide even more surface area for insects and bacteria thereby quickening the decaying process

Thus emitting gases and fluids which causes the greatest amount of odor during the decaying process

So now the insects withstanding let's just say that that didn't occur Jesus healed a man

Whose physical muscles were completely rigid and had no more pliability He healed a man whose billions of cells in its body had experienced cellular death

He healed a man Who gases collected in his body until his skin oozed them out and made a stench in the atmosphere?

He healed a man who was swollen past his bodily size So that the force of the pressure forced out blood and bodily fluids out of his body.

The man was drained of his fluids Jesus healed a man

Who every cell in his body was dead? All of his blood was clotted.

There was nothing About this miracle that was that was small -scale

You imagine at the Word of Christ a billion cells wake up in his body blood unclots heart starts rebeating

Brain, which has been decayed the synapses start firing again with electric

Shock waves and stuff like that the intestines Undo the decomposition that had happened and now they're fully functioning again this man in a moment

Walks out of the tomb after all of that This was the greatest miracle up to this point that had ever occurred

The greatest miracle that had ever occurred and yet the Pharisees resisted in their unbelief.

They said This is the man that we've got to kill because the Romans We're gonna come in and take our place in our nation

They also knew when they said their place They knew that that was their standing in the Jewish community and this miracle was gonna have massive impact

This one would not be contained Word was going to spread fast all over the nation of Judah that a four -day dead man had been healed

And they knew they had to do something to stop this message from getting out as quickly as they possibly could and They figured that Passover would be just the day to do it.

It's one week from this passage the Passover in which Jesus dies Their power was at stake

They were the ruling body and they ruled over the people of Israel with an iron fist if you didn't make the Pharisees happy You didn't go to the temple if you didn't go to the temple

You'd never relationship with God They held the relationship with God out like a carrot to a donkey and if you were lucky, they let you have a bite

All of their power all of their connected Programs that they had were holding over the people's head were at jeopardy because of this

Miracle and even more than that their national standing as a nation Was at jeopardy because of this miracle they said the

Romans will come and they will take away our country That's how big this miracle was.

It was going to exit Judah and Jesus was now no longer just a local miracle miracle worker.

They were afraid that Caesar himself would hear about this miracle They were afraid that riots were gonna break out over this miracle because Jesus had divided the population and when that happened the

Romans would come So they had to eliminate him

Before Rome eliminated them that was their thought process Let's give a little bit of background

Rome I'm gonna do a little bit of background in this Sermon because I think it's important to understand what they were feeling and it's important to understand what was going on in the context

Rome was the largest Empire that has ever existed up until that point Maybe the

British Empire covered more land because you know, they say that there was the Sun never set on the British Empire But up until this point

Rome was the largest Empire that ever existed and it took a lot of energy To maintain a property that big it took a lot of organization took a lot of effort

And it took a lot of strategy Every other Empire that had existed before Rome.

I'm talking Greece Persia Babylon Assyria All of them had similar strategies.

We're gonna go in and set fire to your cities We're gonna steal all your property and we're gonna kill your soldiers and we're gonna chop down your trees

And all the population that remained you're gonna serve us and give you all your money That's the way empires were built and they were built very quickly to increase the fear

Now fear is a wonderful motivational tool temporarily but when you get enough people who hate you and when enough young boys grow up to be men and then they hate what you've done to their family and When they grow a backbone

That's when uprisings rebellions coup d 'etats invasions and all of that begin to happen fear

Will motivate the population for a moment But if you want to maintain an empire for the long term, you have to also do some other things

Rome was one of the first empires that learned how to do this very very well Now don't be wrong

Rome was terrorizing every crucifixion was a billboard to the might and the power of Rome you mess with us this is what happens to you and Rome had every ability to completely decimate anyone in their path but Rome also understood the power of blessing the people

Rome was one of the first empires in the ancient world that offered a pathway to citizenship for people who were foreigners

You had to have a lot of money to do it. Maybe you were born in the right city but It's an interesting thing

Rome was one of the only nations in the ancient world that offered religious freedom Where you can worship your

God you can have your customs you can have your temple you can have your priest so long as you nod to our pantheon of Roman gods and so long as you

Offer a few sacrifices to Caesar other than that. We won't say anything to you You don't say anything to us

Rome gave people a tremendous amount of freedom in the ancient world Which is probably why their empire lasted as long as it did from the beginning of the

Roman Republic to the end and the downfall of the senatory I mean of the of the sessorial Roman Empire was almost a thousand years

It was amazing how they held the thing together as long as they did They gave people religious pluralism masquerading as religious tolerance, but it was unique in the ancient world

They gave you the option of having your own local king for many provinces in Rome Now they chose him

You didn't get to have your own king. They chose your king But they gave you a semblance that everything was okay

It would be like a nation invading America and allowing the president to still stay in the

White House and give oval office addresses Give you a semblance that things are okay

They would allow you to keep your priest again give you a semblance that everything is okay All of these things the dual right hand of a fear and the left hand of blessing

Was the way Rome caused people To stay in the Empire without rebelling

Here's the simple truth about any Empire that's ever existed. We often don't realize this if Everyone rebelled there would be no

Empire If everyone stood up if everyone said enough there would be no more

Empire Somehow the Empire has to inspire the people to submit its will Most of them in the ancient world did that through fear

Rome found that a combination of fear and blessing Could keep the people under their thumb

Except Judah Judah was a thorn in Rome's big meaty side

Judah had been given more benefits than almost any nation under the Roman banner

Judah had been given many privileges that no one else had did you know? That at the time of Jesus Judah was one of the only places in the

Roman Empire where you did not have to tip your hat to the Roman gods and You did not Have to sacrifice the

Caesar. It was a condition that Rome allowed them to get out of to keep the peace

Rome wanted to keep the peace so that they could continue their

Empire, of course The Jews at this time were being extremely political in the way that they were behaving in Rome knew it

There was tension involved in the Jewish Roman dynamic The Jews were sort of getting along right now

So that they could have all these privileges, but as soon as Messiah showed up They believed that Messiah was going to lead them against the

Romans and overthrow the Romans. So they were just kind of biding their time They were doing just enough not to get punished but just enough to keep

Rome sort of frustrated That's why Rome had Pilate in the city They wanted a man there at all times to keep an eye on it because the

Jews were pesky at this time War actually had been eliminated.

It's called the Pax Romana Did you know that? when we think about today war is all the time

Ukraine and Russia or the threat of China and What's the country? Taiwan We're always hearing about wars now back then.

It was not the case Rome had locked down their Providence their

Empire so that war didn't exist The they offered as a benefit to its citizens peace

To live in their nation and Jerusalem was constantly threatening the peace

So the tensions were really high between Rome and Judah So when this council convened and they say that Rome's gonna take away our place

You know what's on their mind their mind is what can we do? to pacify

Rome To not cause the Jewish people to riot. They're trying to walk a very tight rope of Politics so that they can keep everybody happy because if you kill

Jesus his followers are gonna be upset But if you let Jesus live Then more people are gonna be upset if Jesus continues to gain more prominence and more

Authority and Jesus becomes more popular in the nation They're trying to prevent this from happening and we know that because of several quotations that I'm going to share with you from that time period

They were mortally afraid of the Roman Empire and they were mostly afraid of any person gaining too much popularity

For instance, there's a man named Josephus Josephus is a fascinating figure

Josephus is a man that if you get the opportunity to read the the Jewish war the

Jewish war reads Like an absolute train wreck that you can't stop looking away from It is

I read it in one setting. It was it's mind -blowing It goes from about 10 years after Jesus dies and resurrects from the dead until Rome comes in and burns down the city

Josephus was an eyewitness to all of these events So he knows the Jewish ethos.

He knows what's on the Jews mind and in one of his passages he talks about John the

Baptist that's a fascinating thing because Josephus does not care for Jesus does not love

Jesus, but yet he's substantiating the New Testament by quoting John the Baptist This is what he says For Herod had killed this good man.

That's John the Baptist Who had commanded the Jews to exercise virtue righteousness towards one another and piety towards God For only this in John's opinion would the baptism he administered be acceptable to God namely if they used it to obtain not pardon for some sins, but rather Cleansing of their bodies and as much as it was taken for granted that their souls had already been purified by justice

Now many people came in crowds to him for they were greatly moved by his words Herod who feared the great influence that John had over the masses

Might put them into his power and enable him to raise a rebellion for they

Seemed ready to do anything that he should advise Herod thought it best to put

John to death in this way he might prevent any mischief that John might cause and Not bring himself into difficulties by sparing a man

Who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. He's talking about Herod marrying his brother's wife in that case

Here we have a positive example of the Jews fearing Rome fearing mischief fearing a popular person gaining too much notoriety in the nation

They were afraid that he was gonna become too big too powerful and that it with one word he could cause the

Jewish nation to rebel and if rebellion happened the Romans come and everything falls apart in Some sick sort of way they were trying to preserve their national identity

They were saying we are the people of God we need to protect this nation and we need to do everything we can to protect this nation and in their sickness and in their sin

Them doing everything to protect the nation actually is the very thing that caused the nation to fall apart and to be broken

The killing of God's one and only son the killing of John the Baptist You see

Revolutionaries were not really popular in Judah at this time because they were trying to keep the peace with Rome About 30 years after this fact

There's a little skirmish that breaks out between Gala a few Galileans and some Samaritans, which was not all that uncommon

Galilee and Samaria hated each other so there's this little skirmish that begins to happen and Josephus again tells us exactly what happened and it's fascinating.

He says and For the rest of the multitude of those that went zealously to fight with the Samaritans the rulers of Jerusalem ran out

Clothed with sackcloth and having put ashes on their head. They're an extreme agony over this and They begged them to go their separate ways

Lest by their attempt to revenge themselves upon the Samaritans. They should provoke the Romans to come against Jerusalem they pleaded with them to have compassion upon their country and their temple their children and their wives and Not to bring the utmost dangers of destruction upon them in order to avenge themselves upon one

Galilean only in a funny in our passage. It's better that one man should die for the nation than for all to be

Put away that here we have even Josephus a pagan Jewish man saying the same thing

The Jews were not willing to risk it with Jesus They were willing if Jesus could prove that he was the

Messiah according to their definition Then they would follow him and then they would go to war with Rome You see through John's gospel and you see through Matthew Mark and Luke them testing

Jesus the reason they're testing Jesus is because they want to see if he fits their mold for what a disciple or for what a

Messiah should be and when Jesus doesn't fit their mold They write him off and by writing him off.

They have to kill him in their mind because if they don't Rome is gonna kill them Revolutionaries were not popular in Judah at this time

We see it from this text We also see it in an interaction with Pilate Do you remember when

Pilate comes out and he says? Who should I murder? Jesus the king of the

Jews or Barabbas The word used for Barabbas there is not just murderer.

It's revolutionary Barabbas was a man who tried to start a revolt in the country of Israel He failed he was arrested and he was on death row getting to be murdered

So that shows you how the Jews felt about it now pilot brilliantly creates the strategy to sort of tease out whether the

Jews are Okay, it Jesus really is a threat to Rome if he's no friend of Caesar and if and if this is going to happen so Much so that I have to crucify him.

Let me release you Barabbas Let me release to you the failed Revolutionary because surely if Jesus is as bad as you say he is then releasing

Barabbas will make things better for you, right? Surely if we release Barabbas your society is going to flourish and if we leave

Jesus Then the Romans are going to come and they're going to destroy you because Jesus is way worse than Barabbas, right? They're comparing these two men as revolutionaries, they're making

Jesus to be a Revolutionary they're saying if if we let Jesus go

Or no, if we let Barabbas go then then we'll kill Jesus Why because he's inciting the people to rebel against Rome that was what the

Jews were arguing for and Pilate is trying to tease this out of them and get them to admit it and in their hatred.

They say give us Barabbas crucify Jesus Pilate was thoroughly confused.

He thought that his trick would have worked Pilate was confused because Jesus didn't sure didn't really look like he was a threat

Pilate was confused and he said should I kill your king? And of course that was mockery

But they were saying that Jesus was a revolutionary also another fascinating point that doesn't

It's just a side point. You can keep it or leave it the thieves on the cross that word for thief also underneath the

Greek Gives this idea of rebel rousers or mercenaries It's likely that the two men who were killed with Jesus Were with Barabbas in whatever rebellion or revolt that he

That he tried to start so that Jesus dies between two revolutionaries and two thieves

They killed Jesus because they thought he was a revolutionary. They thought he was gonna bring Rome down on top of them and They did that by calling this council

This council is not a generic council This council is not just a meeting of a few important people.

This was a council called the Sanhedrin the Sanhedrin was a 71 -person body

That sort of functioned like the Supreme Court and the Senate all together in that time

It has its roots all the way back to the Old Testament where Moses appoints 70 elders We're gonna rule over the nation and Moses was appointed

Aaron as the high priest so at this time they had two branches of government they had the

King Herod who was sort of a puppet king and partied and really wasn't a factor and then they had

This group called the Sanhedrin which was made up of Pharisees Sadducees and the chief priests there were 71 of them and they controlled the nation of Israel every decision every judgment every law

Everything ran through this group. So the fact that this group has met this group has convened.

This is capital -level crime This is national -level news This is something as significant as the

Twin Towers just got hit and all of Senate is meeting right now to Find out whether we're going to declare war

That's what's going on in this nation. It was a big deal that the Sanhedrin was called for this

The high priest himself was the most important member of the Sanhedrin At the time the high priest was no longer an appointment was no longer a lifelong position in the

Old Testament Aaron was a lifelong priest and then his sons would be priest after him and then his sons would be priest after him

What happened though is that the priest after the exile when there was no king on the throne?

The priest who used to have no power in politics began having power

When the Davidic Kings were destroyed When the exile happened the priest started becoming de facto

Kings in their country they started amassing lots of power and that power increased and increased and increased until the time of Herod the

Great and When Herod the Great came along he said this group of priests actually is threatening my leadership.

So I'm gonna stop it so he stopped lifelong appointments of the priest and he made it a revolving door so that no one could could sort of Centralize enough power to overthrow his kingdom and to also provoke

Rome. Does that make sense? He put down the high priest. He also cut them off from their ancestral line so that at this time

They're no longer from the right child of Aaron. So the priest was was

Devoid it wasn't even biblical anyway He centralized power in two families of the

Sadducees and Those families became the revolving door that high priest went through they didn't even believe in the resurrection

They were political appointments they were pay -for -play type of positions if you had enough money at the time almost like the

US presidency Then you could become high priest. You could become the most important person in Judah at the time of Jesus.

That man was Caiaphas Caiaphas was a statesman. He knew how to play the game and he was a wicked wicked man

He had learned how to keep the Jewish people happy and Rome at bay so that he could maintain the peace during the time of These revolving door high priest.

There was 30 priest Caiaphas himself was a priest for 17 years

Which is an unbelievable accomplishment in this time, which means that he was very political. He was shrewd

He was willing to do whatever it took even killing Jesus to maintain his throne in That time he was given the nickname the

Inquisitor. It wasn't because he had a lot of questions The definition of that is one who inquires or makes inquisitions

Especially one who was unduly harsh severe or hostile in making that inquiry This man was a puppet of Rome This man was a man who was would do anything at all to maintain the peace so that Rome wouldn't come in He even says we have no king but Caesar It's not a man who loved

God It's not a man who Yahweh was his king This is a man who bowed down and did everything he could to kiss the feet of Rome That is the high priest of God's people

Can't imagine Jesus and all of his fury when he goes to the temple You can imagine why he overturned the tables you can imagine why he he chased them out with a whip because they were

Worshipping man and created thing instead of God they were totally Defunct as a priesthood.

It was this feckless reprobate who actually uttered the greatest prophecy that had ever been uttered up until this time

Ever since the Garden of Eden when Genesis 315 the first gospel was uttered. This is the clearest

Prophecy of the gospel that was ever uttered. It was uttered by this Weasel of a man it says in verse 49 through 50, but one of them

Caiaphas Who was high priest that year said to them, you know, nothing at all Nor do you take into account?

What is expedient? That one man would die for the people and that the whole nation not perish

John tells us it was that year because just in case we didn't know it was a revolving door for priest and it wasn't Always the case that the same priest would be in office that year

But this man begins With a sort of arrogance He looks at all of his peers who've been educated in the elite

Ivy League institutions of Judah and he says, you know, nothing I'm the only one who knows anything

Let me tell you how we're gonna get out of this fix and in so doing he declares himself guilty by his own arrogance

He says I know how to get out of this situation and yet isn't it? Isn't it amazing that he's the one?

Who in his statement about one man dying for a nation proves that he's the one who absolutely knows nothing at all

He accuses all of his peers of knowing nothing yet. He's the one who absolutely knows nothing He says we're gonna lose our place and our nation if we don't kill

Jesus. Do you see the irony? Because he killed Jesus. That's why they lost their place in their nation

Because they crucified God's one and only Son God in Matthew 24 says all of the guilt that has ever been

It's gonna be poured out on you They killed God's Son and because they killed

God's Son God was going to crush them and he was gonna use the Romans Everything they feared was gonna happen to them not because of Jesus but because of them

Because they wouldn't bow down and worship the king Josephus again

Warns them of their foolishness and he says he even tells them He tells them three years before it happens

To stop what they're doing. This is what he says It is absurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one

It's almost like he read John 11 But certainly no one can imagine you entering into a war like that willingly

No one can imagine that when the Romans have got you under their power that they will use you with moderation or rather as for An example to other nations burn your holy city

Utterly destroy your whole nation For those of you who shall survive this war will not be able to find a place

Whither to flee since all men have the Romans as their Lords already he's saying if you don't stop what you're doing, you are gonna lose your place in your nation and Ironically, you're gonna lose your place in your nation because of the one man that you killed if you won't repent and they didn't

Everything they had would be gone in the 68th year ad -68

Rome came in with three legions of soldiers and they surrounded the city and starved them out and Then they worked their way into the first part of the city and they burned everything down Then they worked their way into the second part of the city and they burned everything down then they worked their way to the temple

Mount and by accident and Josephus calls it a great providence of God a

Fire broke breaks out in the temple and destroys everything The whole temple is burned to the ground then after that they kill the rest of the

Jews they leave About six hundred thousand bodies maybe upwards of a million

It depends on which account you read lying dead in the streets they take the rest of the people on boats ship them off to Rome and Jerusalem's history as a

Old Testament people is done all because they killed

Jesus and Yet they said it was because of Jesus that they were gonna lose their place in their nation.

They're right It's because instead of worshiping him they killed him They misjudged their enemy

They said our enemy is Rome When actually their enemy was sin and death which made them an enemy of the

Almighty and Holy God When they made an enemy with Christ they did lose their place in their nation, but for the believer

This is where it becomes so important for us For the believer it was necessary for Jesus to die

The Jewish Council convened and said it's necessary that we kill this man so that the whole nation doesn't perish.

They're right It was necessary that Jesus died so that the whole nation of God doesn't perish

Look at what he says in verse 49 through 53. This is the gospel But one of them

Caiaphas who was high priest that year said to them, you know, nothing at all Nor do you take into account that it's expedient for you that one man died for the people that the whole nation not perish

Now he did not say this of his own initiative But being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation and not for the nation only

But in order that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad

So that from that day on they planned together to kill him when they gathered together that day

They put a crosshair on their back They put a they signed their own death certificate but in so doing they caused

What God had already planned to do God had planned to save his people from their sins because of this one man's death

Because of his beating because of his conviction because of his marching up the hill called

Calvary because of the crown of thorns that they placed on his head mocking him as their

King because of Because of nailing him to the cross because of his hands and his feet being pierced

Because of all of that when he cried out my God my God, why have you forsaken me?

He was not saying that God's plan had failed He was saying that God's plan had finally succeeded

That us the people of God would never lose our place We would never lose our nation

The nation he's talking about is the church the kingdom of God Caiaphas when he prophesied thought he was talking about the

Jewish people He wasn't in the providence and the sovereignty of God. He prophesied that Christ would die for his people

His people who've been scattered Now it says not for this nation only right but for those who've been scattered abroad

Caiaphas could have never possibly understood what that meant For the people of God who believe

Jesus in Jerusalem for the people of God who believe Jesus in Judea for the people of God who believe

Jesus in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth in the first century to the people of God in the second century in the third century in the fourth century in the fifth century all the way down to us

The people who've been scattered through every tribe tongue and nation the people have been scattered through every era of human history the people who are

Called by name to come out of the tomb according to Jesus Christ have been brought to him

Because of his death burial and resurrection Caiaphas prophesied it Christ fulfilled it

This is our gospel Uttered on the lips of enemies what a

God and how sovereign he is Uttered on the lips of enemies and yet here we are today.

We still stand and we stand because of Christ There's no Caiaphas who can take us down There's no nation who can squash us

There's no rebel empire that's going to come in and burn what is going on in the

Church of God the Church of God Will by the power of Jesus Christ continue

Generation after generation after generation Until all the enemies of Christ have been put under his feet.

Why because Christ sealed it in his blood if You are a part of that kingdom

Then you have nothing to fear if you're a part of that kingdom You can walk out of here today with your head held high and say this is our world because Christ died to give it to Us it's our inheritance if you're a child of Christ You've got his blood covered on your heart you've been clothed with the royal robes of Jesus I'm asking you

I'm even begging you to see from this text the most powerful people in the world can oppose you and They matter nothing

Because Christ Jesus has won the victory They will even pronounce their own epithet on their lips

Because Jesus is that powerful You my friends if you've been covered with the blood of Christ Then you were immortal until God is finished with you and then you will live forever with Jesus in heaven

Let us praise God for that Lord Jesus We thank you that even when a council of the most powerful people on in Your nation was convened

That they spoke their own downfall Lord when the nation's rage

The people's plot in vain you and heaven laugh Because you will not fail

Lord we began talking about your sovereignty. You're so sovereign that you had Caiaphas pronounced the gospel.

You're so sovereign that your gospel included your death You're so sovereign now that you're reigning over your church and nothing not even the gates of hell can stand against it

There is nothing therefore in all of creation under the earth above the earth. There's no power

There's nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus because of your sovereign will and plan

Lord, let us please Let us please be a bold Vibrant joyful people

Let us never walk out of here as victims Let us never walk out of here as cowards

Let us never walk out of here as people who are afraid of the world you conquer it Consistently over and over and over again and will continue to do so whether pandemics happen or whether Whether people speak evil about the church, it doesn't matter

Because your kingdom will not fail you prove it in your scripture Lord. Give us that kind of boldness Lord make your people bold courageous and Lord make us people who worship you and thank you