We are finishing up with John chapter 11 today. Last week we saw how Jesus wept at Lazarus’ grave, commanded the people to roll the stone away from the tomb, and then raised Lazarus from the dead. We talked about how it was a picture of how Jesus can take things that are dead and decaying in our lives and heal and restore these things and bring life to them. We just need to be willing to bring Jesus to that tomb and roll that stone away by faith giving Jesus access to these areas of our lives.
At the end of chapter 11, we see that John is focusing on the end of Jesus' public ministry. What John recorded in chapters 1-11 took place over several years, chapter 12 takes place in one week and chapters 13 - 19 over a matter of hours. We are slowing down and focusing on the whole purpose for why Jesus came.
We have also come to the end of the seven signs which John had organized his gospel around. Throughout John ‘s gospel his goal in writing it has been clear. Numerous times he states that he writes these things so that “you may know, so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, He is the Son of God and that you may have life in His name.” Everything he has recorded in his gospel shows us who Jesus is and the reasons why we can believe He is the Messiah. These signs have shown us that He has power over sin, over the natural realm, over the spiritual realm and over death itself.
The question we are left with as we have read through these 11 chapters is what will we do with Jesus?
Let’s turn to John 11:45-54
45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.
47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council meeting, and they were saying, “What are we doing in regard to the fact that this man is performing many signs? 48 If we let Him go on like this, all the people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take over 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 are you taking into account that it is in your best interest that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish instead.” 51 Now he did not say this on his own, but as he was high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation; 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.
54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.
As with each major sign, Jesus' words and deeds revealed where the hearts of the people were with God. The question is: What effect did His miraculous works have on people? Some were:
? Thoroughly convinced
? Thoughtless
? Threatened
1. Thoroughly convinced
The first group were thoroughly convinced who Jesus was after speaking with Mary and witnessing how Jesus raised the dead man, Lazarus, from the grave. They witnessed God’s visible splendor, His glory (cf. vv. 4, 40). These are the ones who took to heart all they heard and saw and began to follow Jesus. Even though the caliber of their faith is not described here, the writer declared it to be genuine faith in the Lord, the same faith that Martha and Mary had. We know that they did not vacillate or simply fade from the scene like the “many of the fickle followers” at the first Passover (2:23), or those in Samaria (4:39), or those who just heard the Word at the festival of lights (7:31; 8:30), or even those who saw Him on other side of the Jordan (10:42). Rather, they were thoroughly convinced and continued to follow Him even to Jerusalem.
What is interesting in this passage is that John doesn’t focus on Lazarus. There are no recorded words from Lazarus and so we don’t know what he experienced while he was dead, nor do we know how long he lived after he was resuscitated. In fact, we have no idea what Mary said to the people who came to her about the miracle concerning Lazarus. What we do know is that this miracle was a testimony of who Jesus is as the Christ, the son of the living God and these people were now absolutely, thoroughly convinced. This is why John doesn’t point people to the miracle or to Lazarus, but to Christ Himself.
This passage made me ask, “If I am so thoroughly convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, that the Word of God is the truth, then what am I doing with my faith? How do I respond when I hear the Word of God? How is my faith being worked out in my life a practical way?” The moment you place your faith in the Lord, He saves you, His Spirit fills you and gives you certain gifts, abilities and capabilities. He wants us to enjoy the gifts He has given us and to be faithful to invest them to advance His Kingdom. This reminds me of a TV program I used to watch where people would bring their old stuff/antiques to be appraised by experts. People would bring interesting things like an old, engraved pocket watch, silverware, books, etc. I remember when a man brought an old vase to the antique expert who recognized the value of it and then asked him where he got this vase. The man said, “My grandfather picked it up on one of his overseas trips and left it to me. It’s been stored in a box in my basement for years.” The antique dealer told him that the vase was from the Ming Dynasty and was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Can you imagine the shock this man had because he had no idea that he had this treasure sitting in his house in a box in the basement?
This made me think about the treasures we have as believers in Christ, a treasure in earthen vessel of invaluable worth. Never underestimate the value of what we have been given by God, never underestimate the value of your life and the impact you can have on those around you as you respond in obedience to the Lord. What do we do with Jesus? We want to respond in simple faith to the Words of the Lord and follow Him.
But there were some people who spoke to Mary, who had heard all that had happened, and saw Lazarus raised from the dead but could care less about Jesus and His works. This group was:
2. Thoughtless
When I use the word “thoughtless” here I mean they didn’t care about the negative impact their words would have on Jesus. They were the second group who witnessed the nature and works of Jesus but instead of taking these things and His teaching to heart, they didn’t think through the present and eternal implications of rejecting Jesus. Their words were careless and irreverent. Instead of allowing the things they witnessed to lead them to the truth about Jesus, they wasted this opportunity to place their trust in Him. They didn’t go to the Pharisees with the intent of witnessing to the truth, in fact it was quite the opposite. The passage doesn’t tell us what they said to the Pharisees, but the context suggests that they were rebel-rousers, motivated to cause Jesus harm. The result of their report stirred up an incredible reaction from the council.
When reflecting on these two groups, I began to think about what my life communicates to others. Does my life point people to the Lord and reveal His glory? What is it like to be on the other side of me - what do people see in me? A frail person full of faults and failures yet thoroughly convinced of God’s love and acceptance and thankful because of the redemptive work of Christ in my life?
What about my verbal communication? Do I take the opportunity to speak about Jesus, about His Word? Is my intent to edify and lift others up, are my words seasoned with salt, is there a conviction in my voice, am I sharpening others in their relationship with Christ and encouraging them to take steps of faith so they grow closer to God and become more like Him? Or are there times that what comes out of my heart, mind, and mouth causes harm? Do I repeat or gossip about a matter and create division and separate intimate friends? Do I consider the impact my words will have on people? In our own eyes we may think our ways are clean and innocent and see nothing wrong with our actions, but it is the Lord who weighs and examines the motives and intents of our heart and knows the truth (Prov 16:2).
Like this second crowd, there are times when I am thoughtless or careless (Prov 18:21) and miss those opportunities that God has placed right in front of me - To hear His Word, to follow Him, to live for Him, to know Him, to trust Him. To love others, to encourage others. Am I thoughtless?
An old Austrian author said:
Only the thinking man lives his life, a thoughtless man’s life passes him by.
We do not want to be like this crowd who reacted to what they heard and saw. What did they do with this man - they got Him into trouble with their word. And who did they want to get Him into trouble with? With those who had the most to lose, those who were the most:
3. Threatened
John focuses on this third group more than the other two groups in this passage. These were the Pharisees who didn’t like all the attention Jesus was getting. So they called an emergency council meeting to discuss what they were going to do with Jesus. “If we let Him go on like this, doing all these miraculous signs everyone will believe in Him.”
The people knew He was the One who turned water into wine (John 2), who healed the royal officer’s son (Jn 4:46-64), and the paralytic at the pool (Jn 5:1-18). He was the One who fed over 5,000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread (Jn 6:1-14), who walked on water (Jn 6:15-25), healed a man blind from birth (Jn 9:1-41), and now this same Man just raised up Lazarus after he had been dead for four days (Jn 11:1-46).
The Pharisees were filled with fear and asked what shall we do with this Man? If this keeps up, everyone will believe in Jesus as the Messiah and when that happens Rome will perceive this new religion as rebellion against Caesar. It will bring the wrath of the Roman empire down on us and they’ll take away our temple and our nation will perish! They feared the government more that fearing God.
Rome had a rule about religion. You could practice religion if it was legitimate (one the government recognized) but if it was illegitimate then the Romans had a way of bringing it down in an incredibly brutal way. Jesus threatened the Jewish council’s religious system, their power structure. They were so afraid that if He kept performing these miracles the whole nation would turn to Him and away from them. They would lose “their” following which was more important to them than following the truth of God’s Word.
Jesus not only threatened their power structure, His life and works exposed just how feeble their faith in God was, how powerless the law was to save, and how limited their understanding of God’s grace, mercy, patience, goodness, and love towards sinners was. Jesus revealed His Father's heart for this lost world. The council could have taken it as a challenge in a positive sense, this is the relationship God wants you to have with Him, this is life He wants you to live for Him, this is the love He wants you to show others, but they took it as a threat. When the Lord challenges us to take steps of faith, to trust Him in deeper ways, to die to ourselves and live for him, to forgive others, to love others do we take it as a threat or as a challenge for our good and for our growth?
What does this show us? It shows us that you can be very religious but very lost. You can memorize Scripture and be blind to its truth. You can say all of the right things but not from a heart that has been transformed by the power of the gospel.
For the religious crowd Jesus’ very presence was a threat. For the believer His presence was powerful and life changing. His presence brought life, joy, salvation, conviction, cleansing, deliverance, and healing. Yet some didn’t see it, they missed it, and to others it caused grief and anxiety.
Caiaphas, high priest at the time, thought the best way to handle this threat was to remove it. He said, “It’s better if one man dies to save our nation.” In other words, the official decision that day was that Jesus must die (Matt. 12:14; Luke 19:47; John 5:18; 7:1, 19–20, 25). The leaders thought that they were in control of the situation, but it was God who was working out His predetermined plan of redemption (Acts 2:23). Caiaphas didn’t even realize that he had prophesied rightly about what Jesus would accomplish for Israel but as John elaborates,
not only for that nation, but to bring together and unite all the children of God scattered around the world.
Originally, the council wanted to wait until after the Passover to put Jesus to death, but God had decreed otherwise. Jesus was ordained to be the sacrificial Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. The council wanted to take Jesus out, but the death of Jesus Christ was going to accomplish what God intended not what they intended. It would bring multitudes into the Kingdom of God.
In the end we are challenged with the question, “What shall we do with this Man?” Will we be thoughtless and careless and underestimate the treasure He has placed inside of us? Will we react to His word and works. Will we be threatened by His presence and reject Him? Or will we welcome His Words and works, be convinced of who He is and make the commitment to follow Him?
