Incarnation 36 - Gospel of John - John 11:49-57

[00:00:00] Well, we're getting into our last section of John chapter 11. And that's the pivot point of John's Gospel. In a couple different ways, we have 21 chapters in John and 11 is the middle chapter. But also it's a full-chroom.

[00:00:38] It's a pivot point of what happens in the life and ministry of Jesus. Because now his opponents become public and they fortify their position and they determine to kill him. Which is what the last half of John covers.

[00:00:54] If you can remember back till last week, we talked about how Jesus likes to have these grand object lessons. If he wants to talk about how he's the bread of life, he feeds 5,000 people and many tells them about the bread of life. And those types of things.

[00:01:09] In this past miracle he did, his past sign was the raising of Lazarus, bringing someone to life who was dead. And he was dead dead. Four days dead. He was so dead that there was an odor. He was so dead that nothing could be done.

[00:01:27] There was no coming back and Jesus brought him back. To show that only he can give us life. But he turned that into a teaching about eternal life. He's the only one that can give us eternal life.

[00:01:40] And so by way of introduction, I just want to read the last couple chapters of last week. So we can kick off this week's message. We're going to be getting in John 11 verse 45. If you'd like to read along in your Bibles.

[00:01:55] John writes many of the Jews there for who had come to Mary, come with Mary, had seen what he did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

[00:02:05] So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered to 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.

[00:02:16] And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. They saw what Jesus was doing. They saw who Jesus claimed to be and some believed in him. But some didn't want to believe that because of the cost.

[00:02:34] They feared that it would cost them everything. They had their place, the temple, their system. They had their nation, the Jewish nation, which was under the thumb of Rome and they didn't want to lose that.

[00:02:47] And often do we say to ourselves, Lord, you're asking me to do something I don't want to do because it's going to mean I'm going to lose my position. I'm going to lose this friend. I'm going to lose influence at work.

[00:03:01] That's the proposition that Jesus has for the chief priests and Pharisees here but also in our lives even today is he worth it. These people here in the 11th chapter of John loved their positions and they loved their

[00:03:14] possessions and they loved those things more than what Jesus had to offer. They feared man more than God. They saw that this proposition of following Jesus at one point might cost them everything. And so some of them wanted him gone. So for today we begin in verse 49.

[00:03:41] But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year said to them, you know nothing at all. And already you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.

[00:03:53] He did not say this on 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.

[00:04:07] 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 and there he stayed with the disciples.

[00:04:23] Now 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

[00:04:34] you think that he will not come to the feast at all? Now the chief priest in Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know so they might arrest him. This is the Word of God, let's pray.

[00:04:52] Once again dear Lord we come before your throne. We ask your blessing upon your word today as it's preached. I pray that it takes hold in the hearts of these people, transwarns their lives and mine as well.

[00:05:03] And then your work be done, work that no man can do in the hearts of people but that you be glorified through it. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well as I said we find ourselves here at the full-crum of John chapter 11 and as we go through

[00:05:23] this passage we can see these things as real events they definitely happened in history. But I want us to think about how these things are actually happening also today in our own hearts and our own lives.

[00:05:34] When we see Jesus and what he offers every day, certainly there was a time when we believed in him first and that was a transformational time in our lives but every day we're still asking ourselves how far to how much do I follow Jesus?

[00:05:49] Do I follow him all the way? Am I going to follow him all the way today? And we respond ultimately with belief or rejection. We're not rejection to believing in him but rejection to what he wants, rejection to his

[00:06:06] will for our lives and we go on we do our will for a while and then we do something mess it up and then we come back to him. We talk about prayers sometimes and I think prayer means different things to different

[00:06:20] people and I believe what prayer is to teach us to bring our wills in alignment with God's will. This is the point of life and ministry of Jesus at the point where His opponents firmly take their positions against Him. They determine to kill Him.

[00:06:43] Something else we should notice from this passage is that God accomplishes His will, you'll see that as we go through. How God accomplishes His will, even using unclean vessels. He can use an unclean vessel. How do I know that because everyone is unclean and He uses us somehow?

[00:07:00] That's the beauty of what God does in all the old Testament stories using people like David and Moses and all these broken people and He uses Him for His glory. So we don't have any excuse to say, well I got to clean my life up first and then

[00:07:14] I can serve God right. Our well God could ever use me because I've done this horrible sin in the past where I just can't get this right. Don't believe that. God can use us all. And He even uses unclean vessels as we'll see.

[00:07:30] Even people who oppose Him, He accomplishes His will. Why? Because He's God. And one thing about God is that God is sovereign. That's what it means to say, He's the king of kings. He's the Lord of lords. He's the ultimate authority. He's the boss.

[00:07:48] I said, we want to be the boss. I want to make my decisions. And that's why we have to humble our hearts and come before Him and say, Lord, you are the Lord of the Life.

[00:07:59] Your first note, if you're taking notes says, God can and will use anyone and anything He desires to accomplish His will. You think He can't do that? Yes, He can. He's sovereign. And we'll see this as we go.

[00:08:16] We can think of other times when the Lord accomplish His will by using broken vessels. There's many examples in Scripture. Here in John 11, we'll see that He uses chiafis. My office is no friend of Jesus.

[00:08:30] He's not a believer, but God gave him a word that year and what He spoke out, John calls a prophecy. And that prophecy, unbeknownst to chiafis was true. And it was about Jesus and what He would do to save His people.

[00:08:46] But that's not what chiafis understood it to be. God can use unclean vessels. He spoke through the actions of the pagan king Cyrus back in the story of rebuilding the temple and as her chapter one. He was no believer, he was not a Jew.

[00:09:04] And later on, as her six, he also spoke through another pagan art of zirxes when they rebuilt Jerusalem in the temple. He even spoke through a bail-em's donkey. We know that story. God can use anyone in anything whether or not you believe in Him because He's sovereign.

[00:09:24] And so we should see this account even more evidence. We talk about how John likes to present evidence, making his case about who Christ is, so that we believe. There's more evidence here, how the very hand of God is always working in creation for His glory.

[00:09:40] The number think God forgot about your problems. He's always working. And so I want to listen what's going on here in verse 49. It says, but one of them chiafis, who was high priest at year, he was the man in charge, said to them, you know nothing at all.

[00:09:58] He's telling his counterparts, his colleagues, you guys don't know what you're talking about. I know already you understand that it's better for you that one man should die for the people not that the whole nation should perish. But I like this next line.

[00:10:14] But he did not say this of his own accord. But being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. Not for the nation only, but all sort of gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

[00:10:30] You know that sounds familiar to us. Jesus would die for the people so they wouldn't perish. Doesn't it? Sound familiar? How? It's just something very interesting happening here. And there's a few different interesting things in this passage.

[00:10:46] Chiafis is speaking to his fellow Jewish leaders, chief priests and Pharisees. And again, he's no friend of Jesus. In a few moments, they'll determine to make plans to kill him. And he scolds his fellow Pharisees, he says in verse 49, you don't know anything.

[00:11:08] In verse 50 he says, you don't understand. And this word understands, it's translated to understand is, is La Gidza Maian Greek. It means to reckon, to count, to compute or to calculate or to account for. And I've seen the NLT says you do not realize.

[00:11:32] And King James says, you don't not consider in the New York American sandwiches. You are not taking into account. What does that sound like? It sounds like you're not considering this enough. You're not really deliberating enough over what you're doing here.

[00:11:49] This Greek word is actually an accounting term, like you're trying to reconcile the ledgers. You've got to make things line up. Kaifis didn't want his colleagues to do the wrong thing. He wanted them to calculate. But let's be smart about this. And you guys aren't doing any says.

[00:12:08] This term in Greek. It's accounting the cost term. You've got to count the cost. It's a balancing the circumstances term, or what's the business term? You want to do a cost benefit analysis. What's the cost? He's kind of missing. You guys aren't doing that. It's simple.

[00:12:27] He's trying to tell him. This is a simple problem. And I'll tell you how to fix it. Your next note here says, we should accurately count the cost to understand what it really means to follow Jesus. She count the cost.

[00:12:45] Kaifis here accuses his brethren that they're not counting the cost about how to dispose of Jesus, even though he got the word from the Lord, he did not understand it. He did not weigh those words rightly. Kaifis was essentially telling his friends, you're not doing the math.

[00:13:07] It's a simple problem. You're just not doing the math. Let me see, maybe the math about what? What do you mean? What cost aren't recounting? And what he's referring to is that it's better for you

[00:13:19] that one man should die for the people, one man, rather than the whole nation perish. So like he's got scales and he says, look, if we lose one man, but say the nation, don't you guys see that's probably a good way to go?

[00:13:34] He's saying you're not doing the math. You're not counting the cost. To Kaifis it was simple. You read a one man? Some people will be upset for a while, but they'll get over it. And we'll still have what we have.

[00:13:47] Our place, our possessions, and we'll go on as normal. But I'm being known to Kaifis, he was preaching the message of the gospel that day. That one man would die for the nation.

[00:14:04] We run in May of Isaiah 53 that Messianic passage in Isaiah, where Isaiah writes, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was pierced one man, for our transgressions, for the many. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement, punishment, that brought us peace.

[00:14:32] And with his wounds, one person, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him. One person, the iniquity, the sin of us all, this idea that one should die.

[00:14:53] So that others would be saved, is the gospel. And it came out of Kaifis mouth, but not by his own account. God put those words in his mouth, unbeknownst to him. He may as well have been Baylem's donkey. He was acting like a donkey that week wasn't he?

[00:15:13] With his ideas. Look again at what he said in verse 50, he says, it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. Sounds like the gospel, doesn't it?

[00:15:27] Kaifis told his colleagues that they needed to do the math and it would become very clear. Simple problem. And so if we transfer that event into our lives today, maybe we should be doing some more math in our Christian lives.

[00:15:44] Sometimes it has to do with a bank account, actual numbers. Maybe it has to do with a friendship or different relationships or a position that there's people around that are really not great influences on you or your kids.

[00:16:00] Maybe we should do some more math in our Christian life. Over the past couple of weeks we've mentioned this phrase, which is a distillment of the gospel. This little equation we're trying to figure out and it's really just three words, believe or die.

[00:16:21] John the Baptist came announcing the kingdom, the kingdom is at hand. Repent and believe or die. And when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the first words he said, his first ministry message was repent and believe. Before die, let's read do the math. That's a simple equation.

[00:16:49] We could all understand that. Again last week I read from Mark chapter 8, what is it profit of ban? The game the whole world and for for his soul. That's an easy math problem isn't it?

[00:17:09] If you look ahead to look 14, Jesus says whoever does not bear his own cross and come after cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. What's this?

[00:17:27] Jesus says for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost. Whether he has enough to complete it. We all do that, we should all take the time and count the cost.

[00:17:40] Therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. It's going to cost everything. And the Pharisees did not want to pay that price. So we should always be counting the cost.

[00:18:00] Way in the circumstances of what it really means to follow Jesus. It's easy to say I'm a Christian. It's easy to answer on a survey and check the box. What do you profess to be this religion that religion? Check the Christian box.

[00:18:14] It's easy but that does not entail all of what it means to follow Christ. Looking ahead to verse 51. He did not say this of his own accord but being high priest that you're he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.

[00:18:41] He prophesied that you're the Jesus would die for the nation. The high priest did. Kayafis? Yes, he did. God can use whoever he wants to do his will. Even bad chief priests? Yes. You know, he's a bad king? Yeah. How about bad presidents? Yeah. Bad school superintendents? Yep.

[00:19:13] What about bad pastors? Yeah. We're all broken. There's no perfect personal life. God must use broken people because that's all there is. Do they have to know they're doing God's will? Do they have to agree to do that? No. They don't. God's will will be done.

[00:19:39] Look at Proverb 21. That says, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. What does that mean? You might be king but your heart is like water in the hand of God and he turns it

[00:20:00] wherever he will. Who's sovereign there? The king or God? The 19th proverb. Verse 21, I read many of the plans in the mind of man we all know this but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

[00:20:19] God accomplishes his will because he is sovereign and Caiifus didn't say this by his own accord. It's a line of a scripture. Well, by who's accord did he say it then? Well, by God's. By God's accord. He didn't know what he was saying.

[00:20:39] He thought he was saying something that meant something it didn't mean. Like the old movie. I don't think that word means what you think it means. No, we can use a word and think it means something over and over and over or we can

[00:20:53] get a word from scripture and maybe take it out of context and make it mean something it doesn't mean. And what Caiifus did was he got the prophecy from the Lord. He got the word and he spoke the words. Thought it meant something it didn't mean.

[00:21:09] And then he used that prophecy to bolster his own schemes against Christ to somehow justify the fact that we should go kill him. Your next note here says, we must be very careful about how we use and understand the Word of God. We must be very careful.

[00:21:29] We must treat the Word of God delicately with high esteem and we hold the Word of God and high esteem in the church. The prophecy of Caiifus was a word of God. By the same token, the entirety of the Bible, the written word is the Word of God.

[00:21:50] So we have today and Caiifus used that word to mean that he should kill Jesus. How much more can you twist a scripture? People twist scriptures a lot today. They always have. We have to be careful we're not doing that in a vertently or God forbid intentionally

[00:22:13] to get our plans done. They did it. Caiifus did it so they could keep their place in their nation intact and by he thought he was pretty sharp. Always consider how we're handling the Word of God. How can we be sure that we are faithfully handling it?

[00:22:33] Well, one way to do it. As Paul said, the Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2 rightly divide the Word. He was charging the unpassed or rightly divide the Word. That's kind of old language. What does that mean? Other translations say correctly handle the Word of truth. Correctly handle it.

[00:22:56] Correctly explain it. Accurately handle it. We get the idea. It's a Greek word that means to cut straight, rightly divide, to cut straight. Caiifus said that he didn't cut straight the Word of God. People say, well, give it to me straight. Cut to the chase.

[00:23:19] Just tell me how it is I can handle it. Cut straight the Word of God, rightly divide it. Use discernment. How do we do that? Well, we do it by knowing what the Word says. How do we do that? Well, we have to read it. Learn from it.

[00:23:38] So we can rightly divide it, rightly parse what it means in context. That'll be comes clear. We'll be surprised how much more clear the dots are connected once you read the words. Caiifus didn't cut straight or he heard it from God. And he got it exactly backwards.

[00:23:59] How much damage have we done? Think of all the years you've been a Christian. Young Christian, excited. How much damage have we done in our past after being careless with the Word of God? Maybe it damaged our own faith.

[00:24:14] Maybe it damaged the faith of a friend of ours. Let's just read the verse, so I can timbly do 15. Paul says, timothy, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.

[00:24:25] A worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly handling the Word of Truth in the same chapter. Paul goes on. A few verses later talks about how some people have misused God's Word in verse 18.

[00:24:42] Talking about how harmonious and filetis who have swirves from the Truth are upsetting the faith of some. He swirves from the Truth. We might say one off track from the biblical doctrines. So while we have creeds and confessions, they're like guardrails, if you don't have

[00:25:04] anything that you really stand upon as a church or we might be going different ways with this and that. And the next thing you know, we're not quite sure if there's really only one way to salvation.

[00:25:12] And who knows what we're going to be swirving and veering that far off course? Paul says, do your best to rightly divide. Otherwise you might hurt other people's faith. Paul talks about some people's faith being shipwrecked.

[00:25:31] A lot of these things have to do with bad teachers and some don't know they just need more study. I don't know everything, but I'm doing my best. You should all check everything I'm saying against the Word. You should all check everything anyone's saying against the Word.

[00:25:51] Don't take my word for it. But I know friends, you probably do too. Good friends whose faith has been upset by bad Bible teachings because they were exposed to teachers or pastors who had swirved from the biblical truths that are plain to see.

[00:26:16] Because we get excited about a movement, we want more of this and less of that. We swirved, we go off course. And these precious friends begin to question everything. They might even question if the truth about Jesus is even true.

[00:26:35] They might walk out of a church and never come back. They might walk away not from a church, but walk away from Jesus. That's what a bad teaching can do. We have to be careful. We have to be careful.

[00:26:50] Now what the Bible says, know the context, the verses of the passage you're using or you might get it backwards. You might not even just get it a little off. You might get it upside down. Be careful. Now let's look at verse 51 and 52 together.

[00:27:08] He did not say this up as on a card, Caiaphas, but being high priestess that you're he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. Verse 52 and not for the nation only. But also to gather into one that children of God who are scattered abroad again that

[00:27:21] sounds more like the gospel to me. That's the gospel message. But Caiaphas didn't know it. And that's where we can see the hand of God. In the mouth of an unbeliever speaking God's truth and gospel message because God had

[00:27:42] put him there as high priest gave him a word to speak to the people. And he did, and God was glorified. He was working out his plan. Caiaphas was speaking the truth, but he was blind and deaf to it.

[00:27:59] We're told in first Corinthians that the natural man, the man without Christ in his heart, cannot understand the things of God. They're foolishness to him. You can't understand it. You can tell him to his face and he cannot understand it.

[00:28:12] Can not comprehend it without the illumination of the Spirit within us. Caiaphas was speaking the truth, but he was blind to it. And he was deaf to it.

[00:28:23] He was so sad in his ways like we are a lot of the time that he only heard what he wanted to hear. And then when he heard it he made it mean something else that he wanted it to mean. So don't be like Caiaphas.

[00:28:38] We're like him a lot. Have a soft heart toward the things of God and his will. And you know what his will is. If you're in Christ, you really deep down know what his will is for your life. Don't be like Caiaphas.

[00:28:49] Don't sound like you're trying to be wise, but you're really acting like a fool. Hearing the true word of God and making it say what it doesn't mean, have a humble heart. And we're willing to be wrong about what you think the Bible says. That's a big one.

[00:29:09] We're willing to be wrong about what you think the Bible says. I don't know anyone on the earth who's 100% correct on everything. You, all the best teachers and preachers and evangelists, do you think any of them have everything exactly correct? I mean we're human.

[00:29:24] A lot of them have different beliefs even if it's on last things or secondary issues. Who's really got it all squared away? We can all learn. If I have a humble heart, unless we get something backwards, God forbid.

[00:29:47] And then we might tell other people and upset their faith. I don't want that on my conscience on judgment day. Be careful with the word. I grew mostly in the 80s and there was this thing on Saturday mornings, which is when

[00:30:01] I listen to or watch the cartoons Saturday mornings. They always have this public service announcement that said, the more you know. I don't know if any of you remember that. But I always didn't like that because it cut into the cartoon time, but it's really a true statement.

[00:30:16] The more you know about something, well the better you'll be at it or the more skilled you'll be or more informed. And I thought, you know what, your next note fits this, the more you know idea.

[00:30:26] Your next note says, the more you know from God's word, the clearer things necessarily become. The more you know from God's word. The clearer, don't we like clarity? The clearer things necessarily become. They will become more clear.

[00:30:49] The easier you can see things fit in together and believe it or not the closer and richer your relationship will be with your Lord. Many of us, if not all of us, definitely not these two young men here are married or have been married.

[00:31:07] When you get married, when you're dating, you start to like this person more and more. What do you do then? Do you say, well I know I like you. I've mentioned and we spoke for about an hour at the coffee shop.

[00:31:20] And so we've had a great relationship and I'm going to really like you forever but I don't want to get to know you anymore. I don't need to know any more information about you. I don't want to hang out with you or spend time with you.

[00:31:34] I got it. I know your name, your address, I got you number. We're good. Will you marry me? It doesn't happen in life. Why should it happen with your spiritual walk? You go to camp when you're 10 years old and you lift your hand, you go to the front

[00:31:52] and you say a prayer and you receive Christ as your Savior and then you forget about him forever. Well that's not how it works. The more you know about your spouse, your potential spouse, hopefully the more you'll love them. You'll know them.

[00:32:10] You'll know them better than anyone in the entire world. That's how it is with our Savior, isn't it? With our God. Don't you want to know more about God? About the Lord Jesus? What He did? Who He is? What He's like? What it means to be your Savior?

[00:32:32] How does that happen? You don't just put the Bible and sleep on the Bible by as Moses or something. You get the information. How? Well he's given us five senses. One of them is understanding to read, you read the verses, you read the scripture that

[00:32:47] get into your heart, you're mind, you understand things more, you have a better grasp on who Jesus is. Some people don't like, I don't know if they, I shouldn't say they don't like the pursuit of knowledge in your faith, what? But they kind of throw shade at it.

[00:33:07] That's too much book stuff. You know what? The Bible is God's word. It's not just a book. It's breathe out by God, every word. If we say, Requition, don't we want that? Don't we want to know what it says? We should hunger after that righteousness.

[00:33:30] How do we know who Christ is if we don't know what He did, who He is? What He said, what promises He made, what they mean for us? If we do that, if we just say, yes to Jesus and stop pursuing Him, 10, 20, 30 years

[00:33:46] on the land, we'll have a Jesus in our mind that we follow, that we made up. We've filled in the blanks ourselves. We need God's word to inform our mind and the Spirit will make that transform our lives. Don't be afraid of the knowledge of the Word.

[00:34:08] It's the Word of God. What other knowledge would you rather have? And so, Caiaphas prophesized to the nation gives the gospel message without knowing it and not only does it give the gospel message, he gives the mystery of the gospel. He reveals the mystery of the gospel.

[00:34:25] What was that? That the gospel wasn't only for the Jews but also for the Gentiles. For the whole world, Paul calls that the mystery of the gospel. And so when God's hand is definitely working through this plan, we can see His sovereignty, Caiaphas was just an ignorant participant.

[00:34:46] I'm sure all of us have, at some times, been to some degree in ignorant participant and God's plans too. But God's always glorified and He gets what His will done. This is what happens when Jesus is saving people throughout the entire world through his gospel message.

[00:35:03] He goes out. His people are scattered through the entire world and He comes to their tomb. Like Lazarus, we're still in John 11. And He calls them out to eternal life. He seeks them, He saves them, He calls them out from death to life and they've been

[00:35:25] scattered through the world. Oh, who's scattered? The children of God. And those are the ones He's gathering. He's not gathering all people, not all will believe. But He's bringing the ones who believe into one body, one church, united in Him, body

[00:35:43] of Christ, the church, Paul calls the body of Christ, the church, the body of Christ. Number one, although we're individuals. And God has glorified by that. Remember way back to John chapter 1.

[00:35:56] In verse 12, John says, but to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. To all those who were born of God. You see, every person in the world is not a child of God.

[00:36:12] The Bible says that God gives us the right to become children of God. Oh, by receiving and believing Him. He gives us the right to become children of God. Your next note here says, not all people are God's children.

[00:36:30] But only those who believe in Christ, He gives the right to become His children. We become children of God. Early in John 11, as we saw very clearly, God revealed that He has power and authority over sin and death.

[00:36:53] And here we see that He even has authority over the thoughts and the actions of kings. Chief priests, which other God would you serve? Which other God can you think of that you should serve? Of course I know none of you would ever serve another God.

[00:37:12] But when you disobey the one God, the one true God, and follow your will above His, like I have has said, you are serving another God. Another Lord of your life, namely yourself.

[00:37:33] You say, well for today, I'm going to do what I want to do above God's will. And I'll be Lord of my life today. I'll be Lord of my life in this decision that I really know God does not want for me.

[00:37:49] We can clearly see that God is sovereign, especially in this passage. So the right response would be to worship Him alone. I don't think we worship ourselves, but I think we put our wills above His a lot, all of us to.

[00:38:10] And then how we fight against that and He knows that too. But we gotta be careful. We don't want to hurt ourselves or God forbid other people by doing that. We should strive for His will alone to be done and that was hard.

[00:38:26] But we should strive for that. We should preach in the Pharisees, put themselves and their wills before God after taking the advice of chyophists that said do the math and they did the math. And they determined to pursue their own will. I'm a written verse 53. They're conclusion.

[00:38:50] So from that day on, they made plans to put Him to death. That was their answer to the equation. The people have different responses to the person of Jesus. We saw in the beginning of the chapter, this family that believed, Mary and Martha's family and Lazarus, they believed.

[00:39:16] And some of the Jews that came later believed. And these Jewish leaders here rejected. Different people respond differently to Jesus. This group was definitely very important group of people. And they had a critical response which would lead to Jesus death in the cross days later.

[00:39:41] But you know what? That was all part of God's plan. I read from Acts chapter 4, 27, 28, or the past couple weeks talking about what happened here that God worked in the hearts of people like Pilate and the Jews and the Jewish people.

[00:39:58] And everybody involved to work out the plan that God had predestined before time began. Jesus, there are four no longer walked openly among the Jews. But went from there to the region near the wilderness to a town called Ephraim and they stayed with his disciples.

[00:40:19] And thus began Jesus distancing himself now from the people who ultimately rejected Him. You probably heard this. It's been said that God is as close to you as you want Him to be. And that was as close as they wanted Jesus to be to them.

[00:40:45] And He obliged them. He left. And He distanced Himself from those people who rejected Him. We don't want Jesus to be distancing Himself from us, do we? The more we reject Jesus or His will for our lives or His plan for our lives, the more we

[00:41:09] prove that we're not one of His children. Like the Jewish leaders on the whole, and He'll begin to distance Himself from you. He'll give you what you want, and He'll leave us to ourselves, but trust me that's not what we want.

[00:41:33] You can distance yourself from the Lord for a while. We've all done it. And we can all look back to see how that turned out. Remind me of Romans chapter 1 verse 18, where Paul writes, for the wrath of God is revealed

[00:41:52] from heaven against all and godliness and unrighteousness of men who buy their unrighteousness suppressed the truth. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debase mind, to do what ought not to be done, to do whatever they want to do.

[00:42:13] That's like the ending of Judges. The Lord let the people do what they thought was right in their own eyes. And how that turned out? Not good. Your next note here says, in the best of times, and in the worst of times, stay close to Jesus.

[00:42:38] Why do we run from Him one times or tough? Why do we run away from God's people and try to figure it out on our own? And then come back when things are good again.

[00:42:52] I hope the tough times bring us closer to the Lord, I think many times, most times they do. Don't forget about Jesus in the good times either. Stay close to Him. We should always be running to Jesus. Not putting distance between He and us. We should stay close.

[00:43:12] That's why the Lord gives us this picture of a flock of sheep. Stay in the flock. That's where the protection is. Safety and numbers and the good Shepherd's there. Don't run off. What happens to the one that runs off? He gets attacked by the wolves. Stay close.

[00:43:31] And so now we've seen these two different responses by two different groups of people. Those who believe and receive Jesus for who he is, and those who reject Jesus for who he is. Let me see a third group now. As the people come into Jerusalem for Passover,

[00:43:52] these are called the many. They're just the bystanders. Crowds in Jerusalem, those who really don't have a particular position on Jesus. At least not yet. And we read in the ending portion here, verse 55.

[00:44:07] 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?

[00:44:18] But he will not come to the feast at all. Now the chief priest in the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know so that they might arrest him. And we know where that will lead.

[00:44:34] We'll be seeing this many, the others. You see curiosity. You see speculation, wondering, questioning, not quite sure. And I wonder if that sounds like anyone you know in your life when they think about Jesus. They probably heard of them, not quite sure what to think of them.

[00:45:00] Your friends, your family, coworkers. Are they curious? Do they not know what to think about them? I want to tell you today that's our mission field. There's many others as the Bible says. Many others in Jerusalem, who's Jesus? Who's he come? What do you think? Not sure.

[00:45:28] I don't know. Many others around here in Lakeville. You know them. And I know them. It's our mission field. And they need to know Jesus. We would all agree. And we know Jesus. So what do we do with that equation? We've got to get them to know Jesus.

[00:45:52] Tell them about Jesus. The Holy Spirit will open a door in a conversation or a circumstance that will allow you to bring up your faith or to ask someone to pray for them. Or they might ask you to pray for them. Watch for these doors.

[00:46:13] These many others in Jerusalem would soon have a position on Jesus, one way or the other. But for us today we can be the ones to introduce Jesus to these many others in Lakeville or wherever you are. Invite them to church.

[00:46:27] And all of it sounds people don't like doing that for some reason. Invite them to a picnic. Invite them to a potluck at the pool. Like since it's happening this afternoon, you won't be coming to those things. Ask them how you could pray for them.

[00:46:43] If something comes up in a conversation, having to do with faith or your belief or how you got through a struggle, your faith can come up there. I must have a strong faith in Jesus and he really got me through.

[00:46:55] And their curiosity, here might prompt another question from them. And the Spirit will take it from there. And when you ask them, if you could pray for them, actually pray for them that always helps. Actually pray for them. They need to hear about who Jesus is

[00:47:13] the Savior of the world. Without whom there's no eternal hope for salvation, Lazarus never would have come out of that tomb if it wasn't for Jesus. And we'd stay in our cold, dark, spiritual tombs without him, too. Those many others in light fill or wherever you may be

[00:47:31] need to hear about what Jesus did. What do you do? Well, he lived a sin this life one that we couldn't live. And he changed his perfection for your sin. And he paid for your sin on the cross, once and for all.

[00:47:51] And if we trust him to save us, put our faith in him to save us, he'll do it. He promises to heal do it. And after we share this good news with our friend, we can ask our friends.

[00:48:05] One of the questions that we've been asking this whole chapter. Jesus asked it. John asked it, which is, do you believe? Don't you want to ask your friend at some point after they hear the gospel? You believe? And hear them say, I believe. I believe.

[00:48:27] Do you believe at this morning? I believe we all do. We're going to be celebrating five baptism candidates this afternoon who confessed belief in this good news of Christ. And they'll be sharing that a time this afternoon. If you could make time, please come to that.

[00:48:47] And glorify God in it. Would you please stand with me as we close? Dear Lord, once again, we are thankful to be in this place this morning. We have breath in our lungs as the song we just sang and it all comes from you.

[00:49:09] We have physical life this morning and we have spiritual life because of what you've done. I pray that you continue to be glorified this afternoon as we gather and share the love of Jesus between friends and family and celebrate baptism

[00:49:25] as a picture of what you've done for us on the cross, saving us from our sins, something we could never do alone. We need you, Lord, every day. And I pray that as these people go forward after baptism, they feel a new fresh rush of life from you

[00:49:43] because they're being obedient to their Lord. It's a Lord, be blessed this afternoon. And bless all your children as they go this week. Open those opportunities for us, open our eyes to see them that they may share with their friends the glory of the gospel of Christ.

[00:49:59] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.