Jesus and Religious Leaders
Notes
Transcript
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Accidentally used the dog shampoo today… now I’m feeling like such a good boy.
Almost all garden gnomes have red hats… its a little gnome fact
I remember watching 2012…there are two sides to everything… sometimes you feel like a winner… sometimes not so much… and there were two sides to hearing and believing on Jesus…we’ve heard the stories of those that believed but we are about to see those that do not and what they want to do with Jesus because this passage is an amazing lesson on unbelief and what it means to be in opposition to Jesus
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EXPOSITION
EXPOSITION
1. The meeting of the Sanhedrin to discuss Jesus (v.47).
2. The causes of unbelief and opposition (vv.47–48).
3. The conclusion of unbelief and opposition (vv.49–53).
4. The response of Jesus to unbelief and opposition (v.54).
5. The providence of God in moving events despite unbelief and opposition (vv.55–57).
So after raising Lazarus from the dead the Sanhedrin get together to decide what they are going to do about Jesus. Remember, when John is talking about the Sanhedrin, this is not just the religious leaders of the day, but also the nations leaders… they have called a formal meeting. There are 71 members and it was led by the high priest. At one time they had the power to execute the death penalty but around 20 years before this moment they had lost the power to execute the death penalty which is why they would later take Jesus to the Romans to get what they wanted.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
Isn’t it interesting that the issue here isn’t they don’t believe… they actually DO believe, that is the contingency of the entire argument. And remember, it was the job of these Pharisees and religious leaders to lead the people to the messiah, and what are about to see is they are going to push people further away from the Messiah and God in general.
What is happening here with that in mind is rather sad. They are having this meeting with Jesus standing right with them and they should have seen the signs he performed to prove he was the messiah, but instead of rejoicing and accepting him, they have become the leaders in rejecting Jesus.
And we look at this and think this is a horrible scene, we cannot imagine how they could see what Jesus was doing and still reject him, but this is what happens every single time a person rejects the gospel. When we share the gospel with someone they should rejoice and accept him, see the work he has done and recognize him for who he is, the messiah. But they reject him and call him names and push him away. This is much the same
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.”
And what we see here is that it isn’t their unbelief that caused them to want to kill Jesus, It was for their own selfish reasons they wanted to get rid of him,
Truly, there were three things the leaders feared about Jesus.
They feared they would lose their recognition and following, that all of the things they had worked for and all of the power their flock. It would have hurt them in a deep way that we see big leaders who fall and lose their following.
it was for them they would lose their prestige in the world, they would lose their position of power, the life that they had made themselves accustomed to.
We’ve talked about this before, and not in the same sense of power, but this is what you are asking the mormon at your door to do…
It would mean losing their recognition, loyalty, following, esteem, image, and even friends.
b. There was the fear of losing their place, position, influence, and authority. Losing their place, is the same as a person who has lost their Job… it would mean losing their profession, their livelihood, security and comfort, their authority and power, and in those times as well as ours, their wealth,• wealth
c. There was the fear of losing their nation. (
This will be a little harder for us to understand because we aren’t first century Jews, but the Jewish people understood their religion, their belief in the one true God, that he had chosen them, was what held their Nation together. It was what protected them… If they lost their religion, it would mean losing their nation. And this was the real fear the people had, these leaders had when it came to Jesus.
And there are some of us that fight these same fears when it comes to following Jesus. We all have to fight the love of self to go and give our lives to Jesus. We have to learn to deny ourselves and our own hearts to be able to follow him. This is what We see Paul telling Timothy
1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
We get to the place where we are confronted with the gospel and we must make a choice. Rather we continue to live for ourselves and live our own lives and live for ourselves, or we decide to follow him. It is not much different than the choice these leaders had to make, following Jesus we know means leaving behind the lives that we have planned and worked for, and we believe we should have all of the things we want and we can’t give it up. This is the people who are waiting for the moment they are “Better” before they come to Jesus… this was my father in law I truly believe… He was afraid he had done too much wrong to be forgiven… and we have to choose Jesus.
See when Jesus comes and tells us we have to deny ourselves and give all of our lives to his mission, to reach a lost a dying world… it is hard to look at yourself and say no more of that life, I am following Jesus… IT is hard to give up our self to be able to do what Jesus has called us to for the world.
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
And look what happens next
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.
And what we see is the decision to oppose Jesus was made by the high priest himself. It was him who should have been the one that was most into leading people to Jesus, but he couldn’t do it. What we see is it is definitely hard when religious positions become political. This is what happened here, he allowed his religious position to decide his political moves. And we see him rejecting Jesus for all of the things of the world, and they exchanged an eternity of life with Jesus for a short term power in the world.
This is what we do all the time. We trade eternity for the pleasures of the day. This is a hard thing to do. I heard a pastor once say, if you’re not enjoying your sin, you’re not doing it right. And he wasn’t saying you should like sin, but he is saying most of us sin because we enjoy it…. We are selfish…
2. The suggestion by Caiphas was Jesus should die for the people… isn’t that a funny statement, because he didn’t mean it in the way it was going to happen. He meant Jesus could die so they wouldn’t lose their nation and lose who they were as a people. So we may as well give him up to save us. It reminds me of when we say, Jesus would understand… we are sacrificing what we know is right
I love that verse 51 tells us he didn’t say this of his own accord God was using him to be a speaking force and he was saying something he didn’t quite understand but was truth.
And there was some amazing truth being put out by John here, There is this idea that Jesus was a substitution for the nation and not just that… he was to die for Jew and Gentile… so that all the children of God that were scattered abroad would be brought back.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
And look at the response of Jesus to the unbelief and the opposition of others.
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, and there he stayed with the disciples.
He withdrew from the ones who rejected him… he no longer walked among them or tried to bring them back to himself… he did as Paul tells us in Romans 1, he gave them up to their own desires…
And we saw Jesus telling his disciples to turn away from those who rejected him..
14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.
Funny story…
11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”
Remmber, there is a difference in not accepting and rejecting… this doesnt mean if we share the gospel with someone and they don’t accept Jesus we stop sharing… it goes deeper than that.. this is people who REJECT him… this would be people who tell you you are crazy, that jesus is a liar… its time to give up on those people.
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
And after he turned away from those who rejected him he drew closer to the disciples and gave them more of what they needed and begun to spend even more time with them.
55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.
56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?”
57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.
a. God controlled the time. It was the Passover season, a significant fact. The Feast symbolized the removal of sins. Note that while the people were celebrating the Passover Feast, the leaders were seeking to commit the most heinous crime: the murder of the very Son of God Himself. .)
b. God stirred the people’s interest. Pilgrims flooded into Jerusalem by the hundreds of thousands during the Passover season. The picture is that of people buzzing about wondering and asking if Jesus would come to the Feast. Note that the people actually “sought” Jesus (v.56). God took even the rejection of evil men and worked it out to cause others to seek His Son.
God takes the rejection and opposition of men and uses it to stir interest in His Son. Throughout history some of the greatest movements and revivals of Christianity have been the result of persecution and attempts to stamp out the name of Christ. A man’s rejection is often used by God to stir salvation in others.
22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
c. God controlled man’s devilish plots. He kept the people from cooperating with the leaders and betraying His Son. No man can move against the name of Christ nor against the followers of Christ until God is ready. Although the world is corrupt and evil, God controls the times of His Son and His Son’s followers. Not a hair of their head can be touched until God is ready to use the trial and persecution for good.
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
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