God Doesn't Lose

Bible Passage: Jn 11:45–57

1. The Gospel Always Divides

Jn 11:45-46

Even a miracle as big as raising Lazarus doesn’t unite everyone, it divides the crowd.

The “Jews” were non-believing and came to Mary + Martha as “mourners.” Many did come to believe.

Jewish funeral events like this one were much different. Instead of quiet solemnness, there was seven days of wailing.

Families would often hire professionally paid mourners and singers to make sure there was constant noise so that everyone knew the family had lost someone.

The more money/status a family had, the more mourners they would hire. Lazarus’ family would’ve likely had many coming to do the wailing, singing, crying, etc.

This was surely a funeral unlike any other they had went to work at!

They were there to do a job, as was Jesus, and many came to believe, while not all. They called him, “Man.”

The same sunlight that melts wax hardens clay. Light doesn’t change, it’s about the receiver.

Jesus predicted this in Matthew 10:34–36 ““Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’”

He didn’t come to blend in but break in. Truth divides before it unites. If your faith has been divisive maybe it hasn’t been displayed.

Don’t be discouraged when your faith causes fallout. Even bringing the dead to life can divide people.

Stop trying to please the same world that crucified a perfect person. If Jesus can’t do it, neither can you.

Seek first to please God and let the division that follows be a protection to you, not a prevention of faith.

Gospel decisions will cost you something. Count the cost, but don’t fear it.

2. God Uses His Enemies Too

Jn 11:47-52

The Sanhedrin feared that Jesus would cause a revolution, leading to Rome destroying the temple and the nation.

Sanhedrin was the highest ruling/governing body of the Jews.

70 Members + High Priest. Pharisees + Sadducees.

Almost like merging together our Supreme Court and Congress into 70 people.

Caiaphas was the High Priest at the time, taking the place of Annas his father-in-law.

High Priest was the highest position for Jews. He led Sanhedrin. Second in command to the Roman Governor in the area.

Only one man was allowed to enter the Most Holy section of the Temple, and he could only do it once a year to present a sacrifice for the entire nation of Israel.

God even uses his enemies, and sometimes He does the exact opposite of what we expect.

Caiaphas’ solution was to kill Jesus to keep the system. However, God prophesied through him unknowingly.

By trying to prevent revolution, Caiaphas set something else in order: Resurrection.

He feared chaos, but God planned to bring peace through the cross.

Colossians 1:19–20 “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

He thought it better for one man to die to save the nation, but God saw it better for Himself to die to save the world.

This is the core doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement, that Jesus atones (Makes right) by being our substitute.

Jesus wasn’t just the substitute for the whole nation, as John shows, but for all who believe in Him. His sheep not of the fold of Israel.

John 10:16 “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”

1 John 2:2 “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

On vacation I got to see Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill. The family came from a line of wealth, and because of that, they had many expensive pieces of art and ancient statues. One of them was of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian continued the persecution of Christians in the second century and wanted to erase their worship altogether. This was a tough task as the faith spread, so he planned to destroy their places of worship. He discovered that Christians would gather to worship at the empty tomb where Jesus was resurrected. His plan? He had a giant stone temple to the fake pagan God Venus built overtop of it - he wanted to cover it up forever. God had a different plan. About two hundred years after this, the next Roman Emperor Constantine decriminalized Christianity and made it so Christians could worship freely. He then became a Christian and wanted to establish places of worship. He heard stories of the actual place where Jesus was resurrected, but it was nowhere to be found. Well, thanks to Emperor Hadrian’s effort to cover it up, they actually knew exactly where it was because he placed his temple to Venus right over it. So what Hadrian meant to bury, God meant to display. Now knowing the exact spot, Constantine had the temple to Venus completely torn down and laying underneath was Jesus empty tomb - and you can see it today.

What Caiaphas meant to suppress, God meant to save.

Proverbs 19:21 “There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.”

God can not be outmaneuvered. He can not lose. His plans will not fail and you can’t stop them.

When we fight against God, often the thing we try to prevent is exactly what happens.

Caiaphas wanted to keep peace and save the nation, but his actions leading to the cross also led to the destruction of Israel in 70 AD. This is exactly what he DIDN’T want, but it’s what God wanted.

When you are fearful of losing control or enemies seem to get their way, always remember that God doesn’t lose.

God uses even his enemies, so do not fear them. Instead, pray for them.

Job 42:2 ““I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”

Let go of grudges against who you think your enemy is. Instead, pray for them. God loves them. It’s almost impossible to hold a grudge against someone when you pray for God to bless them.

Matthew 5:43–45 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

If you want victory in life, it doesn’t come from strategy - it comes from surrender.

3. When the Hour Comes - God Is In Control

Jn 11:53-57

This passage marks the end of Jesus ministry and the halfway point of the gospel.

John spent 11 chapters detailing the first several years of ministry. The last ten are on the last week of Jesus’ life.

John 20:31 “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

Jesus did not retreat out of fear, but to control the situation. No one takes his life.

John 10:18 “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.””

Trust Jesus even when He seems silent. He is not forgetting you, He is controlling the timing.

The story of John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress. Imprisoned for preaching the gospel, he spent 12 years in a dark cell, praying for deliverance that never seemed to come. In that silence, he penned one of the most influential Christian works of all time. His experience reveals that sometimes, God's quietness is a call to deeper reflection and greater reliance on His promises, shaping our faith in unimaginable ways.

What if God isn’t silent, but He is setting the stage for something bigger and better. That’s what Jesus is doing.

What story might God be trying to write in the waiting?