Sunday Sermon: John 11:45-53
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Attention:
Bob
Thankful for opportunity
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”
Heart and perspective = proportional relationship
John 11:45-57
Need:
Need to know: perspective of Jesus
Need to know: heart posture
Unsaved & Saved
Body
The Big Idea: Your heart posture towards Jesus affects your perspective of Jesus.
The Big Question: How does your heart posture towards Jesus affect your perspective of Jesus?
1. A yielding heart believes & an unyielding heart schemes (11:45-46).
2. A yielding heart is Jesus-centered & an unyielding heart is self-centered (11:47-48)
3. A yielding heart sees atonement & an unyielding heart sees convenience (11:49-57)
John 11:45–46 (ESV)
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
Explanation:
Bible reading tip: “What is the therefore there for?”
Resurrection of Lazarus
The result: Division
Some believed, others didn’t
2 different heart postures, and two different perspectives of Jesus
Response to Jesus bringing death from life (an undeniable fact)
A yielded heart
Believes
Jesus is Son of God
An unyielding heart
He brings life from the dead, but…
“I know what Jesus said, but...” = huge problem
Jesus gets “told on”
“Did you hear what Jesus did?”
Weren’t willing to yield = scheming
Our hearts naturally scheme
We want to do what we want to do
Fighting against yielding to anything other than ourselves
Believing in Jesus requires a yielded heart
Submitting to something & something that is bigger than ourselves
Application:
Do you yield and believe?
Not yielding = scheming (no in between)
Yield to Him today
If saved, actions reflective of heart posture?
Chunks of disbelief/stone?
Running from His will?
Yield in belief (everyday you wake up)
Transition Statement: The belief of a yielding heart comes from a Jesus-centered foundation, whereas the schemes of an unyielding heart ultimately point towards self-centeredness.
The Big Idea: Your heart posture towards Jesus affects your perspective of Jesus.
The Big Question: How does your heart posture towards Jesus affect your perspective of Jesus?
1. A yielding heart believes & an unyielding heart schemes (11:45-46).
2. A yielding heart is Jesus-centered & an unyielding heart is self-centered (11:47-48)
3. A yielding heart sees atonement & an unyielding heart sees convenience (11:49-57)
John 11:47–48 (ESV)
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
Explanation:
Council = Sanhedrin
Highest Judicial body in Israel
Political and spiritual power, but served under Roman authority
DA Carson: “It was simultaneously a judiciary, a legislative body, and, through the high priest, an executive; and all of this authority was perceived to rest on a theocratic basis.”
Mostly Sadduccees; Pharisees were vocal minority (scribes)
First thing said: “For this man performs many signs”
Don’t deny
Signs: “an event which is regarded as having some special meaning, something which points to a reality with even greater significance.”
Realized pointed to something… didn’t want to see what
Problem isn’t lack of info; it is a sin problem
Heart problem > perspective problem (and vice-versa)
“You can be religious but lost. You can memorize Scripture and still be ignorant of its truth. You can say all of the right things but have a heart that has not been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.”
Their concern: Rome
Focus was on themselves (selfish)
Empty religion-revealed by focus
“Their concern wasn’t whether Jesus was right or good but how his actions would affect them.”
They didn’t even care
They were just in it for themselves
Sometimes we are, too
“When our decisions are not based on clear, biblical standards of holiness but on how they will affect our own comfort and convenience, then we’re committing the error of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
When its all about us, its never about Jesus
But what about opposite?
Yielding = Jesus-centered
Saying no to yourself
Without rather than within
He has answers, not us
He knows best
Trusting in him
Yielding heart
Application:
Who’s at your center?
More time focused on Jesus or yourself?
Selfish in what areas?
Realign yourself?
Commit to action
Transition Statement: a heart that has Jesus at the center understands and experiences his atonement, while the self-centered heart is wrapped up in convenience.
The Big Question: How does your heart posture towards Jesus affect your perspective of Jesus?
1. A yielding heart believes & an unyielding heart schemes (11:45-46).
2. A yielding heart is Jesus-centered & an unyielding heart is self-centered (11:47-48)
3. A yielding heart sees atonement & an unyielding heart sees convenience (11:49-53)
John 11:49–57 (ESV)
49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 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.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
Explanation:
Joseph Caiphas
Appointed in AD 18 by the Roman prefect Valerius Gratus.
Remained in office until AD 36.
Caiaphas is only mentioned in John and Matthew (25:57)
Statement of faith?
Nope.
Jesus = “scapegoat”
“Self-justification”
Needed to come up with a reason to kill Jesus
“If they could justify it, then God could not hold it against them.”
A “convenient” way
Caiaphas spoke greater than he knew
John MacArthur: “God sovereignly turned his wicked, blasphemous words into truth.”
Pointing towards atonement
“In place of” = temple sacrifice
John 12 > = Passover
Exodus 12: first passover
9 plagues + the final plague
The slaughtered lamb
The Day of Atonement
Two goats brought to priest
1 sacrificed, one driver into wilderness
Released = expiation: the removing or covering of sin
Slaughtered: propitiation: Pacifying the just wrath of God
Sin still counted; just not against us
Opportunity to see, understand, and experience atonement
Heart > perspective
Atonement > thankful heart that yields
Application:
Response to Jesus based on atonement, or convenience?
“I’ll follow Jesus when its convenient.”
Atonement… reduced to convenience??
Jesus died for your sin. How respond?
Heart posture?
Perspective?
Live in light of the atonement
Conclusion
Visualization:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
New perspective possible, because new heart is possible
Reiteration
Salvation
Realigned heart
PRAY