REACTIONS TO THE RESURRECTION

 

John 11:45-57

 

What man plans for the purposes of evil, God determines

and plans for the purposes of good.

 

The gospel of John has rightly been called the “gospel of belief” This is what troubled Jesus in His heart, as He loved this family and saw the lost state of mankind as they witnessed Him, but many didn’t believe. Something that is unexplainable became a reality as they removed the bandages and Lazurus who was once dead for four days, was once again, healthy waking among the people. (v4) came to be a reality, and one would think this one act would draw everyone to turn to Christ and accept Him for who is, finally. Its here we see two different responses to the raising of Lazurus. Two responses that have different outcomes, that have eternal consequences.

The first group “The Many” (v45)

 

This portion refers to “Many” but only Mary is mentioned, why only Mary is mentioned and not Martha is not clear. Perhaps she, being more emotional of the two sisters required more consoling than Martha. Or she may have a wider circle of acquaintances than her sister. Whatever the reason is they came to her; it was because of the raising of Lazarus. Many Jews saw with their eyes, contemplated in their minds, noted the significance and drew to a right conclusion. They “Believed” which is so simple but critical, since saving faith is always placed in the Lord Jesus Christ and no other. John is very clear on this throughout his letter. That Jesus is “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Which also points out that not everyone who believed in Jesus manifested true saving faith. “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” James 2:19

 

But nonetheless the faith of these people appeared to have been genuine. This demonstration of those who believed was short lived, because it would turn others to seek leaders to do something about this trouble-maker Jesus. We would think we could spend time here and rejoice with Mary, Martha, Lazurus, and with those who saw this amazing act of God, but we don’t, were not allowed too.

 

This portion focuses on the hearts of wicked men

who struggled with what to do with Jesus.

 

The second group “The Murderers” (v46-v53)

 

Whenever Jesus did or said something, it was always accompanied with division among those who heard and witnessed them. So, these men went out and told the Pharisees what they witnessed; and this is what set the wheels in motion to kill Jesus. What shall we do with Jesus? If we don’t do something it could be bad for us, and the rest of the Jewish people. (v47-v48)

 

See the Romans allowed a certain measure of home rule to the nations they conquered. That meant that the Pharisees and Sadducees enjoyed certain positions of authority on the council and a high degree of prestige. If word gets out that this Jesus is getting a large following this will mean that the Romans will take away their privileges. And the Pharisees and the Sadducees didn’t want this to happen this is why they plotted to kill Jesus and end this possible threat to them.

 Jesus threatened their situation, their livelihood

 

But its interesting to see these men scramble in dealing with Jesus, because these men would rather Jesus would shut up, and stop stirring the waters. Today’s church is a sense is very much like these men. “Is the church today more concerned like Jesus or more concerned like the world. Would people today in North America be saying that about the church as these men did about Jesus then? We know many churches around the world where Christians are being persecuted routinely. A question I get asked is “Why don’t we suffer the same level of persecution here in Canada?” One answer I came across said that, “Canada and the United States is founded by refugees from religious persecution who tried everything in their power to have structure, laws so as to guarantee religious freedom, and the free exercise of religion.”

R C Sproul gives a good answer to that question and I wanted to share it with you this morning. “American Christianity (and we could add Canada here as well) have become very artful in conflict avoidance. In the pages of the New Testament, we see the passion of the apostle Paul as he went on his missionary journeys and proclaimed the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. In the midst of paganism, he unabashedly declared monotheism. The response of people in some places was to throw Paul and his fellow citizen into jail, to beat them, or even stone him. But we have learned to avoid that sort of thing; we say that it just isn’t practical to be too bold in the proclamation of the gospel today. In other words, we have embraced expediency.”

 

Its all about convenience, the church at large has embraced pragmatism, and the church has been placed on a reservation with their pragmatism.

Pragmatism, places the methodology above God.  This exchange of man’s methods over God’s sovereignty is the problem with pragmatism and the Christian. Pragmatism is a philosophy most easily summarized by the phrase whatever works. The central idea of pragmatism is that truth is proved by whether or not the idea in question “works,” meaning it produces the expected or desired results. An example of pragmatism in the church is as simple as this one I found in an article on the subject. “Churches do all sorts of things to attract people to their congregations.  When this happens, there are fundamental questions that must be asked: “What is the motive for doing this?  Does our method undermine the work of God?  Would Jesus be pleased to participate in this action?”  So, when a church spends $200,000 or more on an awesome sound system, lighting effects, and fog machines in hopes to attract more people, these questions become valid to ask ourselves.  Maybe that $200,000 could have been used more carefully?  Maybe God would be more pleased to see some of that money go to help cloth the destitute in that city?  Nowhere in the Scripture is a fog machine, lighting effects, or an awesome sound system required for a worship service that brings honor and glory to Jesus Christ.  But if more people attend the weekly gatherings, the church members and the pastoral staff feel validated in their decisions to purchase the awesome sound system, fog machine, and lighting effects. This example is the essence of pragmatism.”

 

Its this sort of thinking that keeps people on the reserve, instead of going out into society with the Good New, out of fear that it might ruin our freedoms as churches. What do I mean? Our Roman empire (so to speak) allows us to exist; we’re still allowed to practice our faith; fellowship within our walls, we’re still allowed to pray in our churches. But we are wordlessly forbidden from moving off the reservation and into the public square to make public proclamations of faith. We hear example after example that if you had the opportunity to pray at a public event, it is almost certain you will not be able to pray in “Jesus’” name. But this is also happening in the church as well, discouraging believers to ruffle the feathers in Jesus’ name outside the reservation of the church. Many who claim to be apart of the church just want to live in peace and for others to leave them alone to do their own thing, without losing what the Romans gave them. Many who claim the name Jesus, would rather live peaceably on the reservation than to disturb the world with the “Good News.”

 

This is no different here with these men who plotted

to shut Jesus up once and for all.

 

God entrusted these men to prepare God’s people for the coming Messiah and to be faithful stewards of His Word. But these men compromised the Word over, and over again, to keep the Romans happy, so that they didn’t lose their previous privileges. What Jesus was doing throughout His ministry was that He was going off the reserve, and these men needed to stop Him before the Romans would take notice. So, Caiaphas gives a solution to their problem. (V49-v53) We can get an understanding of what kind of man he was by his opening remarks to the men who came with the information about Jesus. “You know nothing at all” This remark was not intended to make new friends or to flatter his colleagues. This typified what kind of a rude, coarse man, he was which demonstrated first century barbarianism. It is said that Josephus, characterized the Sadducees this way. “Their conduct with those who are of their own party is a barbarous as if they were strangers to them.”

 

Do we not see this among those who claim to

be apart of the church?

 

Do we not realize how much like Caiaphas we are?

 

We often make decisions out of fear, we don’t want to become nonconformists. We don’t want to have people think that we’re marching to a different drum We don’t want to provoke the hostility of the world. So we remain silent! Churches telling other churches to get with the times, and embrace this world and all it has to offer, forget all that doctrine and foundational truth found in the written Word of God. This is a new era, and we need to welcome everything that makes the world happy as we stay in our lane and not disrupt the society that allows us to meet. This subtly happened when the true church is: Told to embrace women, gay, trans people, or disqualified men due to adultery, behind our pulpits.

We need to embrace the right to a woman’s body, and woman’s rights to murder the unborn.

Stop being so evangelistic in sharing the gospel so openly, we don’t want to offend the unbeliever. Christianity is private and personal, so leave people well alone, let them come on their own terms and in their own way. Stop exposing false teacher and the health and wealth, otherwise it will ruin us all. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, even though there is one party that is evil and contradicts everything God stands for. We need to be on the right side of history and stop causing so many waves with the culture.

 

It’s the idea get on board, or we will do our best to shut you down, and that is exactly

the mindset of many people today about those who go off the reserve. The reserve is comfortable and its non-threatening, and when the church, or as we see in Jesus here…fear sets in, because our peaceable world is being shaken with trouble makers. We read this in the Book of Acts, “And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.” Acts 17:2-8

 

The church was purposed to turn the world upside down, we were never meant to build bigger building to reach the heavens, by staying on the reserve. J C Ryle warned the church about this, “When a church changes its values to match the current culture it's no longer following the God of the Bible but the god of this world.” We all know the consequences of that, when the people built the tower of Babal. We read in the Book of Genesis, “And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.” Gen 11:3-9

 

In Genesis these verses describe the nature of mans heart which was human selfishness, and God removed them from the reservation. This is no different in attitude with these political men. This declaration of faith was counter-cultural in the face of the fundamental declaration of allegiance to Rome, which was “Caesar is Lord.” But Caesar isn’t Lord, as Paul boldly proclaimed. “Jesus is Lord” 1 Cor 12:3. Remember what Paul said about the gospel confession. “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Rom 10:9. This is more than an intellectual belief, it’s a belief that stems from a new heart that has been saved by God. This new heart cannot contain the joy that fills it, to keep it one’s self. For the early church, the primary allegiance to Jesus as king superseded all other calls of allegiance, including that to Rome and its emperor. Such an approach to life could be nothing but trouble for the empire, and would; and certainly in the ears of the hearers, who would eventually turn the world upside down.

 

Paul affirmed this when he wrote from a prison cell. “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.” Phil 1:27-30

 

What can we as a church take out of this betrayal that

man has plotted against Christ our Lord?

 

First, don’t be surprised when we step outside the reserve of the church that the world won’t take notice, and begin to plan an attack, against you and me.

But be of good cheer! Jesus has conquered the grave, and we are to be His feet, hands and voice to a broken world with the only message that can save a person from death.

 

Secondly, remember what the Hebrew writer said about what we are to do in this fallen world. “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Heb 13:12-16

 

Lastly, remember there has been only one innocent person to walk this earth and He went to the cross for it. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor 5:21

 

Everything Jesus did from raising Lazurus from the dead and to remind those who are His, that He will raise us up with Him…. (future tense) Everything was to point, secure our hearts in Him alone. God who took on flesh to redeem and save lost sinners. So that we would love the church on the reserve, but also have a boldness to leave the reserve, to share in His sufferings. “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,” Phil 3:10. Though these men wanted to just kill and save the nation, this had to happen so that many would be saved though His death and resurrection. It is here that a wicked man like Caiaphas, prophecies that Jesus would die, but not just for the Jews but for the world. (v50-v53) Even in his own ignorance he predicted the death of our Lord who would save many through the gospel. He spoke cynical words of political pragmatism, claiming that Jesus must die to preserve the Sanhedrin’s power and the nation’s existence. This is a demonstration that God sovereignly uses wicked men to bring about His glory in Christ’s sacrificial death. God takes blasphemous words and turns them into truth. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Gen 50:20

 

As we read in Prov 16:9, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”;

What Caiphas thought only in terms of Israel, he could care less about anyone else including Jesus; but Jesus’ death was much broader in scope to save many. (v52)

 

It was for those who were scattered, the Gentile world as well. “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Eph 2:11-13

 

What these men plotted to do was God’s ordain plan to redeem you and me. What do we do with this Jesus? This is a question that plagues our world system still today. The world would love nothing more than to see Jesus’ name destroyed, forgotten, buried deep under a million pounds of cement, and also those who follow Him. But in reality, you could try to do that to Him, where I would say, “GOOD LUCK!” You could kill every Christian on this planet, but that still won’t stop His name from being proclaimed.

 

One day every single person ever created in His

image will profess that name.

 

It will be either out of adoration for those who believe, or out of judgement for those who don’t believe as they receive the punishment of Hell for all eternity in their new birth. Again, I have said this quote to many times because its so fitting by Paul Washer. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is "God is here", and the bad news is "God is here". It depends which side of the line you're standing on. It's not the devil who rules over hell, but God. Fear of failure is many times wrapped up with pride (fear of losing the reputation) Persecution is always meant for evil, but God always means it for good.” Remember what Paul wrote, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:9-11

 

Who will you be on that glorious and frightful day? Will you be like the ones who believed, or will you be like the ones who desired to kill Him, so that you can continue in your complacency and pragmatism.