Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] And encourage you to open your Bibles, if you would, to the Book of John, chapter 11.
[00:00:06] And want to just let you know we're concluding chapter 11 today and then in the next few weeks we'll take a break from John and then after that December will be here and we'll do some Christmas stuff. So somehow that's already here. Tuesday seems to be an important day for many people if it already hasn't been a day of voting for you. I just want to, I'm not going to spend time talking about it or anything, but I do want to specifically pray in that direction before we get into God's word. I know that Pastor Les mentioned that tomorrow from I think noon to 1 and then tomorrow at 6:30 if you'd like to come over here, Tom Horgan and others will be here to pray, particularly specifically for, for election day, for the voting, for what God is going to do in the midst of that. And so encourage you if you are have some time tomorrow at noon or tomorrow at 6:30 to come over and pray specifically to that end. Let me just pray together here. Maybe you just join me as we think in this direction and then we'll get into God's word here. Let's pray. Well, God in heaven, you, you are a king.
[00:01:21] No matter what happens in this world, your reign does not and will not change.
[00:01:29] You are not a God who is far off, but one who is close and knows the details of our lives, the rhythms of our hearts and every thought and intention of our mind.
[00:01:43] And in this country, as we approach a day, we are privileged to use our voice to pick many of our next leaders and representatives. We ask you to intercede, humble us, help us love one another, help us be courageous and stand for kingdom principles. As we recognize that throughout this world as we live, we recognize first and foremost your kingdom is our eternal home.
[00:02:11] And in seasons like this, recognize as well there can be profound division in our country, in our state, in our community, and even in our families, even amongst your people, the church.
[00:02:28] Help us to use your word and your heart as our voter guide and to find great peace in the sovereignty that you possess over all things in this world, including the hearts of whoever may step into positions of leadership and authority. We recognize today that you are king overall.
[00:02:50] Help our hearts and our minds to find great peace in that. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:02:58] John, chapter 11 is where we will be. If you have not been with us for the last few weeks or even last few months, we've been walking verse by verse through the Book of John, starting in chapter one, verse one in January. And we are today concluding chapter 11, verses 45 through 57. I'll read it in just a few minutes. And so as we look at this passage together, I think it's important first for us to look backwards just a moment here in your Bibles, if you have those open, if you're looking at a screen, if you scroll up a little bit, chapter 11. Jesus has just raised Lazarus from. From the what? From the dead. All right, cool. We're all on the same page. And we looked at that in four different scenes. That story. The first week a couple weeks ago, we saw scene one and scene two. Jesus saying that Lazarus death, well, Lazarus illness would not end in death or that would not be the conclusion of his story. And then chapter scene two, from two weeks ago, we looked at Jesus approaching Bethany where Lazarus was buried, and Martha running up to him. The same Mary and Martha that Mary and Martha that's serving and sitting at Jesus feet, that Mary and Martha. Martha comes running up and says, jesus, if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. And Jesus then says that he is the resurrection and the. And the life. Right? That's the fifth I am statement that Jesus makes in the Gospel of John. And then Martha recognizes, yes, I realize that you have the power to bring life. And then she goes off. And we look then at scene three where she goes and grabs her sister. Her sister's name is.
[00:04:36] Her sister's name is Mary. All right, just as long as we're on the same story here. This is important for today. She goes, grabs Mary and says, hey, the teacher is here. And so Mary runs out, and Mary says the same thing that Martha said, rabbi, if you had been near, Lazarus would not have had. Not have died. And she begins. She's at his feet. The others find out that Jesus is there. A crowd of mourners comes. Jesus way. We step then into scene four. This was the last scene from last week when Jesus approaches Lazarus tomb and he tells them to move the stone away. And he calls out to Lazarus to come out of the tomb. And Lazarus does just that. And he says, now unbind him or unwrap him, because he was wrapped in burial clothes. And people are in awe, truly in awe of what has just occurred before their very eyes. So we pick up now the tail end of what just occurred here. Really, it's the conclusion or the response to the miracle. One of the greatest miracles that Jesus has performed before people. It wasn't just that he was raised Someone from the dead, because he has done that before, earlier in ministry. But this person that he raised from the dead had been dead for how many days? Four days. And so that had not been done before in the life of Jesus. So now people's eyes are really honing in on the power that he possesses. Also, if you consider that Jesus has been talked about as possible the possible Messiah, it's pretty cool to have somebody on your team who can raise the dead. Just going to say, if you're going to go to war, have somebody on your side that can raise the dead. You'll be pretty undefeatable. So look at verse 45 with me. We look now at the response from the people, and then we'll get into your outline here. So Jesus has just raised Lazarus that he says, unbind him. You see that in verse 44. Then we look on in verse 45. Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with the sister of Martha, her name is Mary, and had seen what he did, believed in him. This is fantastic. This is what John wants.
[00:06:50] The Gospel of John, the writer of John, he says, I wrote this so that people would believe Jesus did something many believe. But here's where the tension lies.
[00:06:59] But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. We call that a tattletale today.
[00:07:08] So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it. Nor do you understand that. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. He did not say this of his own accord. But being a 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. Verse 53. So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death. What a response to a miracle. Verse 54. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim.
[00:08:08] Ephraim. And there he stayed with his disciples. Now, verse 55. The Passover of the Jews was at hand. And many of them went up from the country to Jerusalem. Before the Passover to purify themselves, they were looking for who, Jesus.
[00:08:24] And saying to one another as they stood in the temple, what do you think?
[00:08:30] That he will not come to the feast at all? In other words, do you think he's gonna come? Do you not think he's gonna come? What should we expect? Verse 57. Now, the Chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, where Jesus was, he should let them know that they might arrest him. Well, Lord, we are reminded again in this passage, yes, that you are king, but also you have the power to do the impossible.
[00:08:59] It is well within you love to do and show us your power. And so as we lean into this text today, I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to the work that you want to do in our hearts.
[00:09:11] You want to change us to be more like you. That here today we would submit to whatever you want to do.
[00:09:17] That we would be shaped to be formed, to be more like you in our daily life. And we leave here today ask that as I say things here, as we walk through this, the words that I say would be from you and guided and directed by you.
[00:09:31] We thank you. That as we recognize there is division, even as we look at this text around you, we can be unified. Under the cross this morning in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:09:43] Well, if you're looking in your outline, there's kind of point one and point two and then there's some sub points there. As you see, the title is Most Wanted or Most Hated. You can kind of see where that title came from. As you look at this text that we just read, the first one you could write in on your outline for point one is this. The works and the words of Jesus divide. Now we have a belief, especially in the Christian circles that Jesus unites. This is something that Jesus prayed for. This is something that we talk about often in the life of the church. But as we walk through even particularly the Gospel of John, we see time and time again that Jesus words and his works don't just unite people, they divide people. Over and over again. We have this like belief or thought that Jesus is going to continue to unite people. Really. He continues to divide and divide. He divides between believers and unbelievers under his lordship. Many of the Jews are clearly recognizing the sign that Jesus had done and the proofs that he had been doing identify him one as having the power of God and the identity of God. The religious leaders or the unbelievers have tried to kill Jesus over and over again, or arrest him, get him out of public ministry. And then there's a group that say, we're going to follow him over and over. We have the group that wants to kill Jesus and the group that wants to follow Jesus. Isn't that division? Those are two very separate groups.
[00:11:15] So let's just, for the minutes that we have here, let's look together at the two groups of people, the two parties, no pun intended, for what's coming up here, but the two parties, and learn from them. And I assure you that one. This is not going to be a political message, but I think we can learn some incredible lessons from both parties, from both groups of people that we can apply personally to our life today. Firstly, verse in your Bibles, you can see there in point A on your outline is this. We see the believers. The believers. You could write that in, if you would. Verse 45 says many of the Jews. Therefore, so because of what had just happened, was Jesus raising Lazarus, who had come with Mary. Thus they had seen what had just occurred, believed in him. Here's what had just happened. And I think it's important we step into their life for just a moment.
[00:12:08] They had just been grieving for four days. Many of these people who were friends of Lazarus, friends of Mary, friends of Martha, they were maybe lived in Bethany or in Jerusalem. They had lived in the surrounding area. They've been grieving, they've been mourning for days because their friend had just died. Hopelessness is what they felt for these moments. Frustration, perhaps even because Jesus did not come early enough to help Lazarus in the midst of his sickness, to keep him from dying. So then Jesus shows up. What's he going to do? He raises Lazarus. And in a moment they go from being in great grief to great joy. Have any of you experienced that? Just in literal moment of I'm crying, I'm mourning to I have great joy. We have to pay attention then to what caused that change to occur. Jesus did.
[00:12:59] And so their response is, we believe. Now what is the question? What did they believe?
[00:13:06] We don't get a clear proclamation at this point in time of what actually believed. Most likely they believe that Jesus was the one sent from God. If you look back a little bit, Jesus. Martha says that to Jesus, if you look ahead in chapter 12, which we won't get to till next year, in chapter 12, verse 13, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey and they proclaim hosanna, right? Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. So we also see that they believe this man is sent from God. He is a special person. Yes, there is probably some there who believe that he is the Lamb of God. As John the Baptist has said in John chapter one. It's good that they believe now for today and then we'll move on. It's important for us to ask a particular question for someone who says I believe in Jesus and it's this question, what do you believe about Jesus?
[00:14:04] Because some people, for some of our belief or some people's belief about Jesus, it can be I believe these things about Jesus that I like.
[00:14:15] He loves me, he has a good plan for my life. That's what I believe about Jesus. And I'm gonna stick right in that lane. Then there's others who. And that's maybe narrow minded belief. Jesus likes me the way I am and is happy with me the way I am. Narrow minded belief in Jesus. Then there's shallow belief that is Jesus is who he said he is in that one place. I might even use the Bible to tell you what I believe about Jesus. But it's in that one place. You with me so far? But then there's complete belief. I believe who Jesus is no matter where he is and what place in the scriptures he says something. So it's not just I believe in Jesus because He says he loves me and I like that idea or I believe in Jesus because for God so loved the world that he sent Jesus and so Jesus wants the best for my life. No complete belief is this. I believe everything that Jesus says even when it makes me uncomfortable, even when I don't like where he's calling me. I believe that he's the King and worth my attention. So I'm going to go to him, wherever that may be. And that's the kind of belief that Jesus desires. It may start with narrow minded belief and maybe even go to shallow belief, but Jesus desires complete belief in us. Not just believe these some things or the things that make you feel good. But even when it doesn't feel good, believe that I am the King. Now there will be a day that Jesus shows up again and he will take his children. And there will also be a day, that day when we recognize there are those who believe and those who have not believed. And no one will be able to say to Jesus, you didn't give me enough reason or proof to believe that you exist. Now how do I know this? Because he is just.
[00:16:08] God has laid out to us all enough evidence. It says in Romans chapter one that he has made clear to us his attributes, namely his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so that we, those unbelievers, are without excuse. Here's something I think we can hold onto before we go to point two. Maybe you could write down and think about for you, if you are here today and you believe, maybe narrowly, maybe shallow and maybe complete, maybe you're somewhere in that spectrum of I want to believe everything that Jesus says.
[00:16:46] What happened in your life that caused you to believe Jesus words? Maybe think about that question. Maybe write it down somewhere. What caused me to believe in Jesus? For these people in this text, it was, he just raised Lazarus from the dead. And I would submit to you this morning that if you don't have a good answer to that question, I'd have to ask why are you. Are you following Jesus? Or is church, Christianity, a social group that we follow the social group, but not submit and believe in what Jesus has to say? So what happened in my life, what happened in your life to cause you to believe in Jesus? Words. There's a clear division that happens. Verse 46, the fearful. So we have the believers in what Jesus did. Then we have those who are now afraid. Look at verse 46, with me through 48. Look what it says. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
[00:17:44] Hmm. Okay.
[00:17:46] Now, some of the chief priests and the Pharisees, they gathered the council. Now, there's some terms here that we'll unpack in just a minute. And they said, what are we supposed to do?
[00:17:55] This man performs many signs. We'll just pause there. Notice in your Bibles, if you're looking there with me, and on the screen, we see that it goes. Some of them went to the Pharisees. The Pharisees are a group mentioned frequently in the Gospels, mostly laymen, who have sought to influence and rule over the people in regards to their spiritual formation, their spiritual understanding of who God is. They believed in strict observance of laws and traditions. Doesn't Jesus speak negatively to them about this? You Pharisees, you whitewash tombs. You do all these things on the outside, but on the inside, you are far from me. So that's the Pharisees. We see in this text that they go to the chief priests. Those are some leading priests that are there. Then they. We see also, in a little bit, we'll have the high priest and we see a council that's brought together, most likely the Sanhedrin. We see These different groups of people, even the Sadducees and the Pharisees before Jesus, they were at odds with each other, weren't they? They were divided. And then Jesus comes along.
[00:18:59] Hey, he united two people, two groups of people that have always been at odds. He united them, opposed to him, but they're united. And so now we have the Sadducees and the Pharisees, who used to always fight amongst each other because they believed different things, united in the attack against Jesus. So look what they say here. This is beautiful. What are we supposed to do for this man performs many signs. What they're admitting here is this, he's doing miraculous work. We cannot ignore the work of Jesus. If we let him, like, it's up to them. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him.
[00:19:37] First, recognition. Second thing or point of fear that they're afraid of is people are going to believe in Him. In other words, they're going to follow him and not us. And secondly, the Romans are going to come and take away our place of worship. So there's one professed fear that they have, and then there's a real fear. Let me just break that down just really briefly here. Firstly, their professed fear.
[00:19:59] The Romans right now are in charge of what's going on. They're overseeing all of those things. Now, here's what Rome has told the nation of Israel and other nations. You can believe what you want as long as you don't cause a ruckus, like peace in Rome, Pax Romana, like that's in place. Do what you want to do, but don't cause a problem. Because if you cause a problem, we are gonna come in and there will be a lot of death.
[00:20:24] That was understood clearly. If you cause problems in whatever your religious structure is, or there's rebel groups that start rising up, the Romans are going to squash whatever that is. So the Jews understood this and so they cared about peace because they didn't want the Romans getting involved in all of their business. Now you understand even why they say what they say in this passage. We can't let him go on like this because Rome is going to take away our place and our nation. We also see that. They see that people are going to believe in Jesus.
[00:20:57] Where did the real fear come from, though?
[00:21:01] Maybe write this down somewhere. Here's what the real fear was, is losing control. Aren't we all afraid of that? To some extent? They were terrified of losing control.
[00:21:11] They understood the logical response to Jesus was to believe in him. You can't look at a man like Jesus and all the things he's doing and say, that's not significant. They reckon even the complete enemies of Jesus realized we can't ignore this guy any longer. And that terrified them. Because if people followed Jesus, these people would lose their control. They would lose their influence in the lives of the Israelites. Now, at first, these. These Pharisees and Sadducees, these religious leaders, didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah.
[00:21:46] And so they just opposed him. They're like, whatever, just ignore him. Now they can't deny that he's the Messiah and the signs that he's doing. They clearly see what he's doing. They don't like it, so they're rejecting him. And like today, people who don't want.
[00:22:03] They're like people today who don't want to confuse all of the things going on with, I think we should pay attention to this guy. They want to pause and say, no, let's just keep him at a distance. Let's kill him. Let's make him go away. Because we don't like what he has to offer. What's keeping you? Question to write down, question to consider. What's keeping you? As we think about these people here, these fearful people, what's keeping you from believing in Jesus?
[00:22:33] Not just him as your Savior maybe, but believing and obeying his commands in your life. That's what they were afraid of. They said, we can't believe in him, we can't trust Him. We can't let other people do that because we're going to lose control. So we have to put the kibosh on Jesus because he's going to take something from us that we want for ourselves. And we ask ourselves this. Have to ask ourselves the same question. Why am I afraid to trust Jesus? Is there something inside of me that I'm afraid to relinquish? If so, why? They have great fear in that way.
[00:23:12] Even in churches, we have this fear sometimes too. If we obey Jesus, he might mess up our church.
[00:23:18] I like the way we've been doing it. So let's not.
[00:23:25] Let's not look at this part of the Bible. Because if we do it this way, it's not gonna work out the way I like it here. We do this in our own lives, don't we? I believe Jesus over here. Cause that fits this. But let's not do Jesus over here. Cause that really is inconvenient. And for them, they're like, okay, Jesus is gonna do his thing over there. But now it's Messing with me. Now I have a problem with Jesus. Now I'm afraid of what's going to happen if people actually trust in him, if we actually trust in him. So we shift a little bit further to point two. They recognize something. And we'll lean into this a little bit more in their response.
[00:24:03] Accepting Jesus assumes that change will occur. You could write that in Accepting Jesus assumes that change will occur. We see this in verses 49 through 57.
[00:24:15] You look on the screen as well. We see, firstly, their heart is how do we stop him? And their way, their method of doing that is killing him. The murderers, you could write that in. That's point A. The murderers in verses 49 through 53. And then verse 57. Look what. Look what it is. We'll walk through this. This is such a powerful passage. But one of them, that is the high priest. So he's the one who is overseeing the Sanhedrin. So the Sanhedrin is made up of scribes, the Pharisees, of the Sadducees and of some of the high priests. There's 70 people in the Sanhedrin, and then there's the high priest, who is the 71st person who oversees that. And actually, that's a reference back to or comes back when, remember back with Moses, when he needed other judges to help rule the people. And so his father in law says, hey, you shouldn't be trying to judge the people all by yourself. You should have other trustworthy people come along and help you. It's a reference, actually. It. The foundation is back to Moses. And so even now, there's this practice of 70 advisors, if you will, in the Sanhedrin, the council, and then the high priest who oversees that. So the council has been called. And one of them, the high priest that year, his name is who?
[00:25:27] Caiaphas. He was the high priest that year. He was actually a high priest for a few years there, said something not very nice at all to everybody else, his comrades, the 70 other folks who are listening in. Here's what he says.
[00:25:42] Y'all know nothing.
[00:25:44] That's not very nice. And interestingly, a historian, Josephus, who we glean a lot from, he actually said, and Caiaphas was a Sadducee, he actually said that Sadducees had a bad rap for treating other Sadducees like their other comrades, their coworkers, if you will, very poorly. That was a known thing between Sadducees. They treated other Sadducees very poorly. They treated others poorly in their vocabulary, in their language, their communication with others. So right in line with that, you know nothing at all. There's other words we could use in our language today, but I won't. You could be creative.
[00:26:20] Nor do you understand, or.
[00:26:23] Yeah, nor do you understand that it is better or expedient. Have you weighed out? Have you considered something? He has an idea and a prophecy, actually that we're going to see. Don't you see that it's better, more expedient that after I've considered this, that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. Now, remember, back to their professed fear. If we let Jesus go on like this, who's going to come in and squash us? The Romans. And when the Romans come in because of some revolt, because of some religious uprising, they kill thousands of people. So this has been seen, this is known about the Romans. And so they were afraid if the Romans come in, many more people are going to die than just Jesus. So I have an idea that you all seem to can't figure out. Let's just have Jesus die instead.
[00:27:20] That's my plan. And he phrases this in a way that is simply powerful because it's relevant for us today. It's a spiritual proclamation and prophecy, not just a physical prophecy about what's going to happen with Jesus. Don't you see that it's better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to perish? This literally is substitutionary atonement.
[00:27:46] One person should die instead of everybody else here.
[00:27:52] John comments on this, saying this is powerful.
[00:27:57] He did not say this of his own accord. It's John, the writer of the gospel here that we're reading. It's John's kind of comment. He didn't say this of his own accord, but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one children, into the children of God who are scattered abroad. Something else that's key for us to know here is one of the reasons the high priest was so keen on making sure there was peace is because he was instituted in that Job. Caiaphas was by a Roman, not by vote of the Sanhedrin and not by the Jewish people. The Romans actually, when they came to power, they began to insert high priest, as they deemed it. Usually a high priest. Job would last for his life and then he would die, and then there would be a new high priest. But in this case, the Romans stepped in and said, you know what? We're going to Pick our favorites. We're going to people, we're going to pick the people who are going to side with us, who are going to make sure that the money keeps flowing to us, because that was important to them. And so Caiaphas was that person that year. And so then John comments that even though, and this again relevant to our political place today, shows that God can work through people who are rejecting him. Caiaphas should never have actually been the high priest. The Romans made him the high priest. People who were not God honoring made him. It put him in a position of spiritual influence. And yet God used that position to show the people and to show us today that no matter where people think they are, I can work through them. Isn't that comforting? Friends, that's wonderful. Verse 53 goes on. We see here the murderers, they then make that decision. Caiaphas kind of presiding again over the Sanhedrin. He says, here's my idea. It's best that one man die for the people. So they voted to some extent, I guess. So from that day on, they made plans. It wasn't just a, a thought process. This was now an official move. This is actually an incredible transition. For three years Jesus has been a thorn in people's flesh. In the side of the Pharisees and some of the Sadducees and some of the religious rulers. But never an all out manhunt has occurred in the last three years of Jesus ministry. They have not liked him. They have said, let's find a way to make him quiet. They've even tried to stone him. But to this significant level of it being high priestly business to find and kill Jesus has not yet occurred until now. Now the high priest has signed off on it. And all of the people under his authority, I.e. temple Guard, as well as the 70 other people there are looking for Jesus because it is time for him to be silenced.
[00:30:51] So we see this laid out.
[00:30:56] Was it the will of God for Jesus to be arrested and killed?
[00:31:01] Yeah. The time is coming. The time is coming. Does that mean they're doing a righteous thing in killing Jesus? Most definitely not.
[00:31:11] Maybe you have to ask yourself this question. I ask myself this question. Maybe write this down somewhere. Kind of the big idea here is this. How much do you fear change? Or how far will you go to stay comfortable? We can have the interpretation of who I want to be or who I think I should be, or who what other people want me to be. But checking in with God, who do you want me to be? They were willing to kill someone who they knew to have the incredible power of raising someone from the dead. They were willing to kill someone who. Who taught thousands of people and multiplied food. They watched all the things that Jesus just done for three years. They saw all of that and said, we want to kill him because he's going to bring change to our life. And we don't like that.
[00:32:01] They're willing to go to the point of killing. How far are you and I willing to go to say no? God? Not yet. Jonah, he ran the other direction, didn't he? No, I'm not ready for that.
[00:32:13] They knew something. The Sanhedrin recognized something that we must recognize today. If you and I accept Jesus for who he says he is, you and I cannot expect to have the same life.
[00:32:28] We cannot expect that to happen. Something will change. If we have complete belief in Jesus, something will change. And for us to assume otherwise is unbiblical and truly naive. For us to say, I would like Jesus to be my king and I don't want my life to change. I'm ready to follow Jesus and I want to do life my way. It doesn't make any sense. And they recognize that these people who are pushing against Jesus recognized we can't accept him and think our life will stay the same for us today. Maybe it's this. I want Jesus, but I also deserve to stay bitter.
[00:33:07] I want Jesus, but I also shouldn't have to want to serve others. I want Jesus, but I shouldn't have to love that person. I want Jesus, but my spouse doesn't deserve to treat. But I don't have to. I don't deserve. I don't have to treat my spouse with kindness. I want Jesus, but I'm good with my life as is, and I don't plan to change anything. I want Jesus, but that addiction, well, that's too much a part of me to let go. I want Jesus, but the way I handle money shouldn't have to change. I want Jesus, but my personal life with my friends, well, that's my private life. I want Jesus, but my TV shows and my movies, those shouldn't have to change. It's naive for us to think that we can say, yes, Jesus, I want you, but don't try to change my life. They recognized that, didn't they? Here's the reality. The evil murderers here can teach us something if you believe Jesus. Words, you can't expect the rest of your life not to change.
[00:34:03] Let's look at point B on your outline. The conclusion of our time here, verses 54, 55, and 56, the Searchers. So we have the murderers and the searchers. They realize he's done an incredibly powerful work and they want to be involved in this. They don't just want to shut Jesus down. They want to be a part of what's going on. Verse 54, Jesus, therefore, that is, if you look back at verse 53, now they're looking to kill him. He is now the most wanted. He is.
[00:34:32] Has. He's the poster child there, if you will. Poster person. He's up on all the walls. However, they did their pictures for most wanted. Find Jesus. That's the directive that everybody has. Find Jesus, because we want to arrest him. Now notice they say they want to arrest him. Why do they want to arrest him? Because they want to kill him. But they're not announcing to everyone that we want to kill him. They did that in their group. They're telling everybody else, we just want to arrest him. Look at verse 54. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to a region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, which is about. It's spoken in Second Chronicles 13 is talked about there. This is about 12 miles north of Jerusalem. And then he stays there. So it's far enough away. It's not like a couple minute walk. He stays there with his disciples, at least. We don't know how much time that is. Probably a few days, maybe a week or so. It's not given the timeframe then. Verse 55, we know now that Passover is approaching. And where do people go on Passover? To Jerusalem. So many went up, that is up to Jerusalem, as it's often said, from the country that is surrounding in Israel to Jerusalem for the Passover. They get there early to purify themselves. Depending on who's coming and what kind of animals they might have. That would take some time to purify yourselves before the Passover. Also, I mean, some of us just like to get to holiday events early, right? Like find a place to stay. Make sure you get into the hotel room before there's, you know, no vacancy. Like you want to make sure that you get there early, get all your food, get settled in. And so there's people coming up to the Passover early for that very reason. Now also remember the last two years, Jesus has been the central focus of the people at the Passover. They've been talking about Jesus. Jesus has done some miracles at the Passover. And so those people who haven't maybe even been to Jerusalem since the last Passover they're talking about what happened last year. Remember last year? Oh, yeah, Jesus did this. Remember two years ago when Jesus did that? That's cool. What do you think he's going to do this year? I wonder. I wonder what is going to happen. And then they get into the city and they soon see Jesus. Picture up all over the place is saying, looking to arrest Jesus? Looking to arrest your Messiah? Looking to arrest the Rabbi. So then they begin to ask a reasonable question. What do you think? Do you think he's actually going to show up because people want him dead?
[00:36:53] Maybe ask a question here for you and for me. Why do you want Jesus? They might have wanted Jesus because they wanted to see some cool tricks for some of them. Some of them actually believed that he was the Messiah. Some of them wanted to see a miracle. Someone just wanted to have something to talk about. Why do you want Jesus? Why are you searching for Jesus if that's you?
[00:37:14] Jesus did amazing miracles. They were waiting for the Messiah to free them from the captivity of the Romans.
[00:37:19] But for us, for you and for me, why do you want Jesus? Now, if you don't have a personal answer for that or it's based in something that happened a long time ago, I would submit to you this. That might speak to why you have struggle engaging with Jesus on a regular basis.
[00:37:39] If the reason you're like, I'm searching, I think, why would I want Jesus? Well, he did something for me 20 years ago. Well, he did something for you 20 years ago. That's great. What about now? What's going on now with you and Jesus? Because if there's nothing going on, that might speak to the apathy that exists in your spiritual walk with the Lord.
[00:38:02] Search that out. Ask him to reveal to you, Jesus, what are you doing? How are you showing yourself faithful? What can I be doing to serve you? Remind me of your kindness and your goodness and your grace, that you're working inside of me every day. That you want to shape and shift me to be the person, mold me to be the person that you want me to be.
[00:38:21] So now maybe you ask yourself the question, why do I want Jesus? Because I know I need help and I can't do evangelism without him. That's why I want Jesus. I realize every day that I take a step that I have the possibility to make the wrong turn. And I need him every day because I don't want to make a wrong turn and grieve his heart. Why do I want Jesus?
[00:38:45] Because he's a friend who sticks closer than a brother. When I feel lonely, he's there. When I need help, I can call upon him. Why do I want Jesus? Why do you want Jesus?
[00:38:57] Because he's the King.
[00:38:59] Let's conclude there are two options. We see this in our entire message. There are two options. You believe in Jesus, that is life and life on earth. And after this, earth will be in reconciliation, will be in union with him, connection with him.
[00:39:11] The other option is most hated is rejection of Jesus. And you reject Jesus on this earth, he says, okay, I'll let you reject me afterwards. And it's separation from him forever. There are only two options. Whether you believe in Jesus as a 10 year old who doesn't understand dispensationalism in all its details, or you're an 80 year old theologian who can speak Greek and Hebrew like a fish to water.
[00:39:41] Regardless of where you are, if you've trusted in Jesus, the end is the same.
[00:39:48] And whether you're some, maybe you're someone who says no, I'm just not really sure I'm really ready for that, or I'm not really sure that he's for me and I think there's other ways, or you're passionately hating Jesus or anywhere in that spectrum, the outcome is the same. There are still only two sides.
[00:40:06] Trusting in Jesus or rejecting Jesus. It's not me saying this is God's word. And it's clear on this. It's not a matter of whether I like it or you like it or somebody else likes it or not. It's a matter of whether or not we believe the words of Jesus to be true.
[00:40:22] And for those in our text today, they saw man, Jesus, it's true, and he's powerful and notice what happened. Great division. Great division.
[00:40:32] Something to think about. One thing to think about, one thing to do this week because of what we saw here, at least one. We just offer them to you, a question that you can consider and think about. Maybe write this down and then one action step.
[00:40:45] Is there something to think about, something to consider? Is there a part of my life that I'm afraid of Jesus taking over, so I've been keeping it from him?
[00:40:55] Maybe things you do with friends or things you watch or books you read, things you think about, activities that go on at work, activities that happen in the family. Is there a part of my life that I'm afraid of Jesus taking over and so I've been keeping it from him? And then secondly, something to do.
[00:41:12] Spend time with Jesus, asking him that question and write down what he brings to mind spend the next five or six days. I'm gonna ask that question every day. Jesus, is there something that I'm afraid to give you, that I've been afraid to give you because I don't want you to take control of it. Cause I'm afraid of not being in control anymore. Is there a part of me that's not believing in what you want to do? Let's pray.
[00:41:35] Lord Jesus, we need your help in our world, in our hearts, in our lives, in our church. Lord, we want to submit to you. The work that you want to do in us is better than anything we can do ourselves.
[00:41:48] Your spirit is alive and working in those here today who have trusted in you.
[00:41:54] For those who have yet to trust in you, Lord, I pray that you would continue to work in their hearts and open their eyes to your love for them and your care for their soul, your jealousy of their light, of their soul, of their mind, of their devotions.
[00:42:10] So we're reminded here today as well, you are a God of grace and a God of mercy.
[00:42:17] A God who is rich in love towards us.
[00:42:22] As we celebrated not too long ago, being able to sit before the cross and know without a shadow of a doubt that if we've trusted in youn as our Lord and Savior, our sins are washed away.
[00:42:35] And we now, no matter what divisions we may have had with others in our life under the cross, no matter who else it may be, no matter what differences we may have, we are one in Christ.
[00:42:47] And we celebrate that today. We thank you for that.
[00:42:52] We thank you for the cross. We thank you for the work that you want to continue to do in our lives.
[00:42:59] Help us to submit to you. Reveal to us parts of our lives that we have yet to submit to you. We entrust that to you today. In Jesus name, Amen.