John 11:45-57

Good morning! It is so good to see you this morning- thank you for coming to be with us to seek the Lord together and worship him. Last week we returned to the series on John and if you are following along, we will back up from chapter 12 and take a look at John 11:45-57 this morning. To refresh what happened leading up to this point- Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and this, along with his claims of being the Son of God and the Messiah had stirred up an already boiling pot. So there is a great tension among the leaders along with a great expectation among the people swelling up at this point as Jesus continues revealing his purpose.

So let’s start with the Word this morning, John 11:45-57- the Word of the Lord to you and me:

45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” 57 But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jn 11:45–57.

There are three truths for application I want to bring to you this morning, one is a challenge to you, the other two are encouragements that can have a profound effect on your life, if you accept them. I will just lay them out before you right now and then we’ll go through the Scripture and talk about it more.

The first one is a loving challenge to you about self-preservation— and believe me, this challenge goes to me just as much to each of you. Challenge yourself with this question, do you sacrifice following Jesus to preserve your own place in this world? Think about that question.

The second truth is an encouragement to you about Jesus’ sacrifice to preserve your life.

The third truth is about the diverse yet unified community that Jesus created for you and I to flourish in— that community is called his church- his people gathered together. It’s a community that he has filled with purpose in a variety of forms, I want to share a little bit about this morning.

Let’s pray-

Coming into this story, Lazarus had just been raised, and many Jews started to believe in Jesus, but the skeptical ones went to the Pharisees. So the Pharisees called a meeting with the Sanhedrin— the Sanhedrin was like the Supreme Court of the Jews. Under Roman rule, the Jews were allowed to govern themselves with the Sanhedrin as their appointed rulers. They had considerable power, but not enough to execute someone. This meeting shows the real motive behind their push to kill Jesus and make him a spectacle on the cross for all to see: v. 47 - the Sanhedrin met together and they asked:

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

Jesus was a threat to them, and he was gaining a huge following that was more than the Sanhedrin could handle, all of their attempts to stop him were futile— they saw him as a rising challenge to their rule and their livelihood, especially because he was claiming to be the Messiah. They realized that their incompetence in repelling this challenge to their self-governing rule would force the Romans, who were the real rulers of the land, to come in full force and take away their self-government. Then the whole nation would dissolve because a king was something the Romans would not allow. Now it is important to see that the Sanhedrin were more concerned about their self-preservation than whether or not Jesus was truly the Messiah.

Alright, I want to hit the pause button right there and bring a challenge to us here- this is the first point for application for us this morning. Here these high ranking leaders were faced with a choice… they could sacrifice their high standing, their own self-rule, their hard-earned place in this world and follow Jesus, or they could seek to preserve all of that and rid their lives of Jesus. They chose self-preservation and they ended up losing everything anyways when Rome destroyed Jerusalem in 70AD.

Here is my challenge to you and myself, and I ask this lovingly… do you sacrifice following Jesus to preserve your own place in this world? Does your status, your office, your place, the image you want to project to the world stand between you and Jesus? Think about this carefully.

I know in our culture today, it is very difficult to let people know that you follow Jesus. In many places, it is too controversial or even considered insensitive or intolerant to talk about Jesus- we live in a post-Christian culture that disfavors traditional Christian values. Alot of us are afraid of what might happen to the relationships we worked so hard for if we brought Jesus into it. We’re afraid that we could lose our reputation, maybe even our jobs in that highly sought-after position of respect if they knew of the values or beliefs we have as Christians.

This is very difficult because we’re talking about our livelihood, our reputation, position of influence, our projected self-image- how we want people to percieve us. My friends, remember that all that you have been given is truly a gift from God, and he will show you how you can respond to this challenge. John 12:25-26, in the very next chapter, Jesus said, “anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” Those look like hard words, but here is the truth: everything we are looking for is really right there where Jesus is. God is gracious enough to let you take steps toward realizing the wonderful beauty of his rule in your life. So don’t be afraid to begin pulling down those areas of self-preservation in your life and start placing Jesus there instead— I want to challenge each of you to think of one place in your life right now where you have pushed Jesus out, where you’ve X’d out his rule, and right now, ask him to come rule in that place—take out the X and put the ✝ there— proclaim right now that he is the king in that place and that you submit to him as his servant— say that out loud and say it everyday— in fact I invite you to say that with me right now— “Jesus you are king of my whole life, and I will serve you everywhere I go.” Say that everyday and look for ways to be a servant to Jesus in that place. It could be a place in your mind, or your body, or a physical place you go to everyday, or even a place you shouldn’t go to. Put the cross in that place and follow Jesus. Don’t be afraid, trust him, give your whole life to Jesus and you will find he is with you, he will lead you, and you will recieve Father God’s honor, the highest honor to be recieved, just as Jesus said. Amen?

Now let’s look real quick at the rest of the Scripture and then I’ll finish with the final two points of application. (Display the scripture 11:49-50) Back to verse 49, the high priest, Caiaphas—the presiding officer over the Sanhedrin— spoke to them in a very insulting tone— kind of like how our government officials talk to each other today—saying, “you guys don’t know what you’re talking about,” — and in verse 50 he says something pretty astounding, considering this is Jesus he’s talking about— he said, “don’t you know it’s better that one man die for the people than the whole nation die?” Actually, it was Caiaphas who didn’t know what he was saying because he didn’t say this thinking of Jesus as the Messiah, he said it thinking it was the only way to prevent the Romans from crushing them— so his solution was to capture Jesus, present him to the Romans as an insurrectionist, and have him executed. Verse 51-52 the narrator, John, tells us that actually God was the one who spoke through Caiaphas about Jesus—vs. 51-52 are key passages for this morning and we’ll get back to them in a moment.

So continuing on, in v. 54, Jesus saw the growing threat of instability so he withdrew into the wilderness for a while. And as the Passover feast came, we can see the desperation of the religious leaders to find Jesus along with the expectation of the crowds to encounter Jesus— Now remember, the annual Passover feast drew throngs of people to Jerusalem- and by this time, there was clearly a growing expectation for Jesus to show up and publicly anounce his intention to take the throne as the king of the Jews. We know that he did exactly that but not in the way that everyone was expecting. So with these high expectations for the official arrival of the Messiah in Jerusalem, the high court issued an order, saying in verse 57, that if anyone sees Jesus, they must report it so that they might arrest him. So there was an enormous amount of tension building on what Jesus was up to and what his purpose was in coming.

Now let’s go back to the key verses, 51-52— Caiaphas said, “it’s better that one man die for the people than for the nation to perish,” John interprets for us the meaning of Caiaphas’ words, saying:

He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jn 11:51–52.

So I’ve already proposed a challenge to you about self-preservation, and here is the second truth for application that I want to encourage you with, that is— God has a preservation plan that is far better than any self-preservation plan we can come up with. The scattered children of God in this verse is you and I—- all who are not Jewish. Because of Christ, all who were not considered God’s people have been given a path to citizenship as God’s people, so 2. we are included in God’s preservation plan— this is part of the reason why Jesus came, He is God’s preservation plan for the human race.

Now I’m going to switch into theology mode for a minute— just a little bit! Verses 51-52 express the heart of the Christian faith, and that is what is called “atonement.” Atonement is simply the process of bringing two estranged parties back together so they are “at-one” with each other; simply put, atonement is the healing of broken relationship between God and people. Associated with atonement in the Old Testament framework is sacrificial substitution through the shedding of blood— let me explain this a little bit— humanity’s disobedience to God unleashed the virus of evil upon the world, allowing it to cause all kinds of deadly chaos. Now the problem is, God is holy and his holiness is such that it cannot be corrupted. The nature of evil is like a virus, it infects whatever it contacts, it brings death. But God’s holiness cannot be in the presence of evil, He exterminates evil on sight. We have been infected with the virus of evil, and there is only one vaccine available to eradicate evil— the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is the ultimate, atoning sacrifice (Rom. 3:25: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, m through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith”)— we recieve the vaccine of the blood of Jesus through faith in Christ, and this allows us to come into a fully healed relationship with God. Christ is God’s preservation plan for humans and the world, and through his blood, we are healed and preserved for eternal life— God’s great gift to us— Jesus substituted his life for ours. My friends, the reason why Jesus asks for your life is so that he can take it, make it whole, and give it back to you. Jesus takes our life to give it back to us. Will you give your whole life to Christ?

The final truth for application that I want to encourage you with comes as a result of Christ’s atonement for us—- Jesus did not die for us just so that we can have eternal life with him— he gave his life to bring us together in community and make us one. Listen to this- Jesus is creating the most amazing, beautiful, and diverse community. 3. He gave his life to preserve you and I, and to place us together in his community so that we will be one, to flourish and have purpose in this life—- not just to help us get through life until we die— but to cause us to actually flourish in this life together with life-giving purpose. Jesus said that he came so that we would have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10)- this is the flourishing life, giving our whole lives to Jesus as he gave himself for us. I’m going to pull from the Westminster Shorter Catechism and echo that our chief end, our main purpose, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever— that is how we flourish.

The flourishing life is at its best I believe when we join together in the community of God’s people as one for the purposes of glorifying God in this world. I want to share a few stories about what that means because this part about making us one can be a real problem if we don’t understand how God makes us one, how he uses us to show his glory. One of the most amazing things about God’s flourishing community is that we are one in purpose but diverse in form— God meant it to be that way, so let me share a few stories.

First, a little bit of my background: I grew up in the Assemblies of God church and went to a private Christian elementary school that was pentecostal charismatic. Later, I went to a foursquare church— pentecostal. Then I joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM) when I was 24, serving 21 years and 17 as a missionary in Thailand. Now, YWAM is a very diverse missions organization with members from every denomination with every Christian belief imaginable. Coming into that organization my only church experience was pentecostal charismatic— that was the church world for me and everything else was suspicious— especially presbyterians! Just kidding- they were all equally suspicious- baptist, lutheran, methodist…. anyway- God started teaching me about the beauty of his people and the difference between purpose and form. I had connected form directly to purpose— and that, my friends, is not a good thing. So - my first little lesson from God came through the way one of the leaders prayed. You see, I was taught to always pray with your eyes closed and head bowed… Well, every time the leader started praying, he seemed to be looking straight at me with his eyes wide open and his head up. At first I was disoriented because he would go from teaching straight to praying and I couldn’t always tell when he started praying. Well, at first I thought he was odd, and I kind of wanted to tell him, “don’t you know you’re supposed to pray with your eyes closed?” but then after awhile God showed me what was most important—- the heart toward God coming through, and I thought “huh… that is really interesting.” “very interesting”—

Well that was just the beginning of the many lessons that God taught me about how He makes his people one through his purposes and calling and not through their forms. I’ll give a few a more examples- in Montana I had the opportunity to be the worship leader at a small Calvary Chapel church in Kalispell. Now, I grew up listening to dynamic topical sermons from a screaming preacher, and when I went to Calvary Chapel, well, the preacher preached from the Bible, book by book, verse by verse, in very long mono-tone sermons. At first I thought, well this is odd, but then after awhile I heard God’s voice through him, and I thought, “hmm… this is really interesting… very interesting!” I came to appreciate that form.

Then I moved to Thailand and I wish I had the time to tell you all my stories— but I’ll just tell one- when I moved there I met Yam right away— well she invited me to her church where she was the worship leader, and this was a Thai Baptist church. So she invited me to play guitar on the worship team and- side story— when I got there, she handed me a bright red, very formal, long-sleeved jacket to wear, which all of the team members wore. So I put it on and the sleeves were so big and wide that they were hitting the strings of the guitar and I couldn’t play- so I tried rolling the sleeves up but they were too big and it would bunch up—looked like I had wheel barrow tires wrapped in red fabric around my arms— anyway that’s a different story- that red jacket still haunts me to this day— alright, the story I want to tell is this— the band would lead worship for about 45 minutes on Sunday morning, the preacher would preach about 1 hour, then we would all have lunch together— this was a pretty large church— and after lunch we would meet together again for cell groups the rest of the afternoon, often into the evening- so sunday church was an all day affair. Well at first, I thought, “this is really odd….” but after a long while, I thought…”hmmm…. interesting… very interesting…” Through my time in Thailand, God gave me many more interesting experiences with his diverse church.

Last story, I came back to the US in 2015 and in 2016 I was hired at this church in Kirkland, Washington— now, despite all of my previous experiences with different denominations, I knew absolutely nothing about Presbyterians—so when I came here my first thought was… hmmm… this is really odd… but I want to tell you the truth it didn’t take long for me to say… interesting… very interesting! The bell choir was something I had never heard before and I absolutely love it. You know I think God gave me all of those previous experiences so that I could be prepared to serve him here at this church with you and become one with you in our purpose to glorify God and enjoy him together. By the way, I am officially on the path to be ordained in ECO hopefully by this time next year.

I shared all of those examples with you to just highlight both the diversity and the unity of God’s people. We are one because God has made us one, but we are diverse because God has called us to be diverse and unique in our forms— the ways that we work out his purposes and show his glory. If we flip that around and say that our forms are our purpose then we will fail because eventually forms fade away but God’s purposes remain the same. God brings us together and unites us in His calling and purpose through Jesus, and if you are able to accept this, his callings and purposes can be worked out through us in an infinite variety of forms. And we cannot be identified by our forms but we need to be identified by the calling and purposes of Christ— I’m not saying anything against any particular form- just that we are unified by our calling and purpose, and that is where we thrive both personally and corporately. Church, let us unify ourselves behind the purposes of Christ Jesus and allow him to inform us how we should carry out his mission in this community and world. When we are unified by God’s purposes, then we are free to use forms according to the diversity of gifts that he has graciously given to us. I want to end with this: Jesus died to bring you into his preservation plan, to take your life, heal your brokenness, and give it back to you with purpose, and to place you in his great family where you can flourish with others in all of your unique ways.

Let’s pray.