RECEIVER OR REJECTER: RELIGIOUS RESPONSES TO JESUS

Introduction

-We will be in John 11 today—considering the video that we watched and considering how people reacted to Jesus throughout the gospel of John that we have been studying for some time, we notice that people who claim to be religious, (for our day maybe even Christian), have diverse opinions about who Jesus is, or at least who the Jesus that they are willing to accept is.

-And that is an important distinction, because there are people who claim religion who yet reject Jesus for who He revealed Himself to be.

-While alive on the earth during the time of His ministry, Jesus constantly faced rejection for His being Messiah, the Son of God. He was rejected by family (His own brothers and sisters didn’t believe His claims); He was rejected by His own nation, the Jews; and He was rejected by the religious leaders of His day (those who supposedly followed God, but then reject the One that God sent).

-That rejection led to his death:

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isa. 53:3-5 ESV)

-In the passage we are looking at today, Jesus performed what was undoubtedly the greatest miracle of His earthly ministry—the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

~What you would think would be a catalyst for the entire nation and world to come to Him in faith turns instead to a time of people rejecting Him because they want Him to be something other than who He is.

-What this reveals is that there are many people who are highly involved in religion who nevertheless are blinded to the truth of Jesus’ person due to the hardness of their heart. These are people who claim religion who reject Jesus rather than receiving Him.

-And I want to talk about four groups of religious people represented by some of the reactions in the passage we are going to read. And seeing as you are here in a church on a Sunday morning, I am going to assume that you are religious or spiritual in some way. But just because you are religious doesn’t mean you’re right with God. So, I want this message to be a time of soul searching as you ask yourself which group you belong to.

John 11:45–57 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. 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.” 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. 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. 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.

-Let’s look at 4 groups of religious people and their responses to Jesus:

I) The mold-makers: Create a Jesus in their own image

-Here you have a group of Jews who were witness to Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. They saw the stone rolled away. They heard Jesus cry out: LAZARUS, COME OUT. They saw the one who was dead for four days walk out of that tomb.

~You would think that anybody who witnessed that would learn more about the one who did the miracle and listen to what He had to say about Himself. But that wasn’t the case.

-You see in v. 46 that some of the Jews who saw dead Lazarus raised by Jesus run to the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem like a bunch of bratty tattle-tales.

~They didn’t go to give a praise report—what they found is that Jesus wasn’t fitting the mold of who they thought the Messiah should have been. So, they went to tell the rulers what happened because they knew the rulers were opposed to Jesus, and they wanted the rulers to do something about it.

-What these Jews were looking for is someone who would rubber-stamp what they already thought and believed. They didn’t want some sort of Messiah who would deal with their heart or call them sinners or tell them they needed salvation. They didn’t want a Messiah who claimed to be the only way, truth, and life.

~They wanted a Messiah who would advance their agenda. They wanted a Messiah who would fight for their cause. They wanted a Messiah who backed their politics.

-But they were finding out that Jesus wasn’t their guy. Jesus was claiming to be the Bread from Heaven, and the Light of the World, and the Good Shepherd. But that wasn’t what they were looking for. They had a specific mold in mind, and Jesus didn’t fit the mold, so Jesus had to be rejected. Since Jesus wasn’t “on their side” then they were going to look for somebody else that would rally to their cause.

-They wanted Jesus to be one way, and they would reject anything that did not fit their preconceived notions of what a Messiah should look like.

-And, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. In our day and age we have people who will claim the name of Jesus to further their own cause. But the Jesus they are claiming is not the Jesus of the Bible—it is not the Jesus who revealed Himself. They reject the Biblical Jesus and receive a false Jesus.

-For example, the LGBTQ community claims Jesus is just fine with their sexual choices. They claim that Jesus wants them to be LGBTQ and made them LGBTQ, so they don’t have to change, they don’t have to repent. They have molded Jesus into their likeness.

~But Jesus says that God made them male and female—that’s what a marriage is. That is the only godly expression of sexuality.

~But their Jesus is OK with it, never mind that Paul says such will not enter the Kingdom…

-An even more bizarre example is that some even want Jesus to be a plant:

Back in September, Union Theological Seminary in New York held a special service where they prayed to plants. They declared on Twitter: “Today in chapel, we confessed to plants. Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor. What do you confess to the plants in your life?” They later stated, “In worship, our community confessed the harm we've done to plants, speaking directly in repentance. This is a beautiful ritual.”

-Since you confess to God through Jesus Christ and repent toward God through Jesus Christ, the only thing I can come up with is that they want Jesus to be a plant because that is the Jesus that fits their radical environmental agenda.

-But us Baptists have to be careful. We think we have the right Jesus for our politics but be warned: Jesus is NOT an Republican. Neither is He a Democrat.

~Jesus Christ is King of king and Lord of lords. Your politics don’t define Jesus, Jesus is supposed to define your politics, and at the rate things are going, ain’t nobody got it right. So, it’s best to fit yourself to the mold of Jesus Christ, rather than trying to fit Jesus in your mold, because He ain’t going to fit in your mold.

~Don’t be a mold-maker!

II) The power-players: Seek a Jesus who reinforces their control

-The Jewish religious leaders take notice that the populace is beginning to follow Jesus instead of them. Jesus is chipping away at their constituency.

~In v. 47 they recognize that Jesus is performing signs, but they refuse to accept what the signs point to. So, in v. 48, they exaggerate the consequences of letting Jesus continue His ministry. They say if the people leave their control and turn to Jesus, the Romans will come and destroy the place.

~So, in vv. 49 & 50, the high priest Caiaphas uses that exaggerated fear to his advantage—it’s better for Jesus to die than for the whole nation to go up in flames (even though it still will in about 40 years).

-But what the religious leaders are doing is to try to protect the power and control they have—and if Jesus’ teachings and ministry get in the way of that, then Jesus has to be taken out.

-If Jesus would have submitted to them and their power and their control, everything would have been fine—they wouldn’t have sought to kill Him. But since their lives and teaching didn’t match with God’s revealed Word, Jesus was opposed to them; and, in turn, they were opposed to Jesus.

-There are people in religions and people in churches who exercise control over others, and they try to neutralize anything that would threaten that control they think they have. This includes manipulating Jesus’ identity and reputation so that they maintain their power.

-This is what happens quite often in cults—there are leaders in cults who will manipulate the concept of Christ so that it looks like they are Jesus’ chosen leader, or maybe they themselves are a manifestation of Jesus.

~For example, back in the 1990’s in Waco, Texas, David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians, gave Himself a Messiah-like complex and reputation and manipulated his followers so they followed him instead of the real Jesus.

~The claim of the cult leaders is that to follow them (instead of the Biblical Christ) is to follow the will of God. But the Christ they put forth, or the Christ that they claim to be, is a far cry from the Jesus of Scripture, and what they offer is to keep them in control of their followers. It truly is a manipulation of Jesus to keep them in power.

-But cult leaders are not the only ones. The health and wealth teachers put forth a Jesus that will ensure that the money keeps flowing their way. They key for them is to manipulate Jesus in such a way as to keep their follower thinking that Jesus will make them materially and physically prosperous, but in reality, the Jesus they put forth only keeps the false teachers prosperous and in control. As long as they can keep dangling in front of people this Jesus who wants you happy and rich (like a rider dangling a carrot from a stick in front of their donkey), these false teachers maintain power over the gullible people who reach to gain something that Jesus never promised would happen in this life.

-But, unfortunately, manipulating the concept of Jesus to maintain power happens in Baptist or other evangelical churches as well. We hear of influential families or power-hungry deacon bodies or inner-circle-groups in a church who will give the propaganda that the will of Jesus just happens to coincide with what they want done in the church

~And if anybody, especially a pastor, comes in preaching or teaching a biblical Jesus that threatens their sacred cows or threatens their pet programs or threatens their control over the church, they will slander those who pose a threat, claiming that they alone possess the real Jesus, all the while manipulating the concept of Christ to keep their power.

-Now, mind you, the Bible does talk about religious leadership. Pastors are set up to be the spiritual leaders, the spiritual under-shepherds, of a church. However, a pastor ought not manipulate Jesus to further their agenda. A true leader who serves Jesus Christ has one goal, and that is to exalt and manifest Jesus, and to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission.

~So, don’t be a power-player either.

III) The spectacle-seekers: Desire a Jesus who performs the sensational

-In vv. 55-57 it tells us that the Passover is near, so Jews from all over the Roman Empire were swarming to Jerusalem so they could offer sacrifices to cleanse them so they could participate in the Passover meals and ceremonies.

-While there in Jerusalem, they heard about this Jesus who had rocked the Jewish world, and they wanted to see Him in action. They heard He did miracles, He healed people, he raised people from the dead. And they were hoping He would show up in Jerusalem at this time so they could see Him do His thing.

-You see, they weren’t searching for Jesus because of His teachings. Instead, they wanted to see something spectacular. They yearned for the sensational.

~It’s like today, people don’t like listening to normal, everyday life situations for news. People are more attracted to the tabloid garbage. They want the latest gossip. They want something to tickle their eyes and ears. They wanted something to keep them entertained.

-That’s what the people who converged on Jerusalem were looking for. They weren’t looking for a spiritual Savior. They weren’t looking for forgiveness of sins. They wanted a show. They wanted something to oooo and aaaah about. They wanted amusement.

-This is the way I think of it—when these people thought of Jesus they were looking for some sideshow freak.

~If you’ve seen the move THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, it’s a musical loosely based on the life of P. T. Barnum and how he started his show that would eventually turn into the circus. But he gathered to himself all these people with these anomalies to entertain the masses. He got the bearded lady. He got the small man. He got the wolf boy. All the freaks to amuse the people.

-That’s what these people were looking for. They wanted Jesus to do the miraculous, not so that they could repent and believe, but so they could be entertained.

-It reminds me of the gospel of Luke’s account of the trial of Jesus. Pilate sent Jesus to Herod after hearing Jesus was from Galilee. And it says that Herod was glad Jesus was brought to him because for a long time he had wanted to see Jesus do some sign.

~Herod wanted to be amused. Herod wanted His eyes and ears tickled. Herod wanted Jesus to put on a show.

-And how much of that is true in American evangelicalism today. And how many churches have bought into it.

~People have gotten so used to entertainment between TV and movies and sports that they expect Jesus to hold their attention in the same way.

~And then people expect the church to feed into that. They think you got to do this or that, or have this program or that program, to keep people’s attention. But the Bible doesn’t say that entertainment, spectacle, or the sensational is what saves people. The Bible says that the gospel of Jesus Christ alone has the power to save.

-If you think that Jesus came in order to amuse you, to give you some sort of tabloid experience, then you are sadly mistaken. Jesus doesn’t care if you are amused or not. Jesus died to save your soul because you are a sinner separated from God. If you want to be amused, you will entertain yourself all the way to Hell.

~So, don’t be a spectacle-seeker

IV) The Bible-believers: Accept the Jesus who revealed Himself

-V. 45 puts it rather simply: Many of the Jews who witnessed the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead believed in Jesus. It’s that simple: believe and be saved.

-You see, the Bible makes it clear that the miracles and signs and wonders of Jesus were done in order to verify the message that Jesus gave about Himself—that He is the Messiah come to save people from their sin. The miracles were there to confirm for people that Jesus really is who He claimed to be.

-So, these Jews, seeing Lazarus raised from the dead, then believed everything Jesus had previously proclaimed about Himself or what was proclaimed by other about Himself.

~Jesus is the eternal Word who was both with God and is God

~Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

~Jesus is the only Son of God whom the Father has given so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life

~Jesus is the Bread from Heaven who has come to give Himself as spiritual food for the people

~Jesus is the Light of the World, exposing people’s sins and pointing people to the only way to Heaven

~Jesus is the Good Shepherd who gave His life on behalf of the sheep

-That’s the real Jesus, and our response is to repent, believe, and submit.

~Don’t try to be a mold-maker, trying to mold Jesus into whatever you think He should be

~Don’t be a power-player thinking that Jesus will solidify your control

~Don’t be a spectacle-seeker, thinking that Jesus exists to entertain you

~Be a Bible-believer, trusting in everything that Jesus revealed about Himself in Scripture: that He died for your sins on the cross, that He rose again the third day, that He ascended into heaven, and all who believe in Him will have eternal life

Conclusion

-If you have never believed in Jesus (not just knowing facts, but placing all your trust in Him, submitting all your life to Him), then during the invitation come forward and be saved and receive eternal life

-Maybe you know someone who fits in those categories, and you want to pray that God would get through their hard heart and they would believe in the true Jesus, come to that altar and pray for that person

-If you are looking for a church home that will only preach and teach the Biblical Jesus, then you have found it…