Introduction:
A Some in the Jewish community have cried foul over the portrayal of Jews being the executioners of the Christ and this portrayal is manifested in one key character, at least for me, in the film: Caiaphas.
a Caiaphas was the high priest during not only Jesus’ ministry, but also during Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, ministry.
b Caiaphas was, arguably, the most pious, religious, and influential person amongst the Jews in Jerusalem during the last twelve hours of Christ’s life.
*He was at the center of the entire plot to crucify the Christ.
*He was present and participated at Christ’s trials, beating, & crucifixion.
B We are continuing our series Meet The Cast of the Passion with the lesson, Meet Caiaphas: How to know the difference between a religion & a relationship.
47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 "If we let Him go on like this, all men 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 take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being 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. -John 11:47-53 (NASB)
a ETS: Caiaphas was a lot man who was religious.
b ESS: Being religious is an eternity apart from being in a relationship with God.
C Objective: I hope you’ll leave here knowing where you stand with Jesus.
a Probing Question: What do you have; a religion or a relationship?
b T.S.: Let’s look back in time to see how Caiaphas gave us two reasons to believe he had a religion rather than a relationship with God.
I The first reason Caiaphas gives us to believe he had a religion rather than a relationship with God was . . .he was unresponsive to God’s leading.
A God had given Caiaphas reason upon reason upon reason to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
a Three reasons:
aa Lazarus (Jn. 11.43-46 NASB)
43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." 44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said* to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." 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. John 11:43-46 (NASB)
(Remember the story of the rich man & Lazarus? The rich man called out from hell to send "Lazarus" to tell his family about salvation. God did raise a Lazarus!!! Didn’t do any good!)
27 "The rich man said, ’Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father 28 where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’
29 "Abraham answered, ’They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’
30 " ’I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ’but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’ 31 "Abraham replied, ’If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.’ " Luke 16:27-31 (MSG)
bb Signs & Wonders (Blind, deaf, lame, mute, prostitutes from the whore house to the Lord’s house)
47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. John 11:47 (NASB)
cc Jesus himself!
62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Well, what about it? Did you say that, or didn’t you?" 63 But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to him, "I demand in the name of the living God that you tell us whether you claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God." 64 "Yes," Jesus said, "I am. And in the future you will see me, the Messiah, sitting at the right hand of God and returning on the clouds of heaven." 65,66 Then the high priest tore at his own clothing, shouting, "Blasphemy! What need have we for other witnesses? You have all heard him say it! What is your verdict?" They shouted, "Death!--Death!--Death!" Matt 26:62-65 (TLB)
b Caiaphas was a highly religious person. (Spent years learning Levitical law in rabbinical school. Fasted, prayed, disciplined . . .something wasn’t right)
*Caiaphas religion did not mean God was leading him.
*Jesus shows up spreading new light, revelation, & direction. (If Jesus is right . . Caiaphas had to change his beliefs, behaviors, & life’s direction.)
*God was screaming @ the top of His lungs trying to get Caiaphas attention and he refused to respond!!
B Religious people know so much about God that they no longer need Him.
a God does things this way or that way. He or he does this or doesn’t do that.
*God never deviates from the way he had done things in the past!
*CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve God all figured out wrapped up nice & tight in a theological and religious bundle!
b The moment you believe you have God all figured out . . .you will become, at best, unresponsive to any new direction God wants to take you. (This goes for individuals & churches.)
C During World War II an American plane was flying a mission in Africa. Under the cloak of darkness they flew toward their destination of Benghazi in North Africa. A strong tail wind pushed the plane much faster than expected.
a When the instruments revealed they had reached their destination, the crew members apparently kept flying in disbelief of the gauges. They felt the instruments must be wrong, so they pressed on looking for a beacon light that was already miles behind. Eventually, the plane ran out of fuel, and the entire crew died when they crashed in the desert.
*Why did the crew die? They thought "I can’t believe this!"
b Caiaphas blew it because he though "I can’t believe this!"
*Religious people blow it when God reveals his direction for them and they say, "I can’t believe this!"
T.S.:
The first reason Caiaphas gives us to believe he had a religion rather than a relationship with God was . . .he was unresponsive to God’s leading, but he doesn’t stop there.
II The first reason Caiaphas gives us to believe he had a religion rather than a relationship with God was . . .his religion did not change him.
A Jesus’ last public message opened up with a scathing critique on the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day. (Caiaphas wasn’t mentioned by name, but I can image Jesus had his picture on the PowerPoint presentation!)
1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, 2 saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. Matt 23:1-3 (NASB)
a Jesus points out that the Pharisees knew a lot about the Bible, it just didn’t sink into their hearts.
* v.3 ". . .all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them."
*The Pharisee’s teaching from scripture was solid but their inward heart condition stunk! (Outwardly they were religious, inwardly . . .rebellious.)
b (Ps. 51.6a TLB) You deserve honesty from the heart; yes, utter sincerity and truthfulness.
B Recently Dieter Zander, the pastor of the first GenX church in America speak at a conference about reaching people in the age of relativism. He cited a Barna study that asked people to use single words to describe Jesus. They responded, "wise, accepting, compassionate, gracious, humble."
a Then he asked them to use single words to describe Christians, they said, "critical, exclusive, self righteous, narrow and repressive."
b "There is a difference between knowing the good news and being the good news, Zander said. "We are the evidence!
*How we live our lives are the evidence. Everything counts--all the time."
*A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.
C Let’s play ‘Let’s Pretend’. Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until a new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family and move to Europe for six to eight months. And I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you directions and instructions. I leave and you stay.Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations.
Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office and I am stunned. Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the Receptionist’s room. She is doing her nails, chewing gum and listening to her favorite disco station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing. The carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I asked about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, "I think he’s down there." Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office, which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas."What in the world is going on, man?" "What do you mean?" "Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?""Letters? Oh yes! Sure! I got every one of them. As a matter of fact, we have had a letter study every Friday since you left. We have even divided the personnel into small groups to discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of the things were really interesting. You will be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two - Great stuff in those letters."
"OK. You got my letters. You studied them and meditated on them; discussed and even memorized them. But what did you do about them?" "Do? We didn’t do anything about them."
Conclusion:
A Caiaphas was a lot man who was religious. Being religious is an eternity apart from being in a relationship with God.
We’ve looked back in time to see how Caiaphas gave us two reasons to believe he had a religion rather than a relationship with God.
a he was unresponsive to God’s leading.
b his religion did not change him.
B Objective: I hope you’ll leave here knowing where you stand with Jesus.
a Choices? Refuse to change your belief, behavior & life or follow God’s Will.
b Choices? If your faith does not change you, your faith isn’t worth much.
C What do you have; a religion or a relationship?
(PowerPoint Slide description: Use photo from "http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1808434070&cf=pg&photoid=506900&intl=us
and superimpose the following texts. DO NOT PUT ALL TEXT ON ONE SLIDE. Duplicate picture slide 3x’s. First slide has Mk. 15.31-32a. Second slide Mk. 15.39 and third slide Romans 6.23.)
a At the crucifixion, I am fascinated by two witnesses response to the crucified Jesus.
1 Caiaphas & the religious crowd.
31 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying, "He saved others; He cannot save Himself. 32 "Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!" Mark 15:31-32a (NASB)
2 Roman soldier at the foot of the cross.
39 When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" Mark 15:39 (NASB)
b I think we look @ the cross as Caiaphas did or as the centurion.
*Caiaphas saw Jesus . . .but left calvary with a religion.
*Centurian saw Jesus . . .but left with a relationship!
Romans 6.23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
*Eternal life is not IN a religion. It is in a relationship with Christ Jesus.
c What do you have; a religion or a relationship?
