John 11:11:43-46

Bibles, turn with me to the gospel.

John chapter number 11.

Last time we were hearing, John, we

finally got Lazarus out of the tomb.

Amazing miracle, right?

that only God could do.

Only God raises people from the dead.

And after Jesus gives instruction to

unbind Lazarus and let him go in verse 45,

Curtain falls on this dramatic scene.

And then, we have no further

information about the event at

all in scripture.

Now, tradition says, now this is tradition,

says that Lazarus lived another 30 years, maybe that's true.

I mean, it seems he did live for a while, after he came

back from the dead.

Think about it.

We don't know anything about his reunion with Mary and Martha.

Wouldn't you like to know a little bit about that conversation?

I mean, we don't know anything about the shock and

the awe that must have just

roared through the witnesses who were there that

day to see this event for themselves, we

know nothing about any of that at all.

We don't know anything about any of the conversations

that Lazarus had after this.

Can you imagine the questions?

Lazarus?

Where were you?

Lazarus?

Can you tell us where you went?

What was it like?

Wherever you went.

Possibly he had the same response that Paul had.

You remember Paul took a trip to heaven, 2 Corinthians 12,

verse 4, and says he was caught up into

paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.

So, Paul had been to heaven, and

nobody could get it out of him what it was like.

Right?

So we just have no information whatsoever

about Lazarus after this astounding

miracle occurred.

Now, you want to know why?

Because this event right here is not about the psychology

of reunion.

It's not about that.

It's not about the rest of Lazarus's life.

And this event, surely, is not about our

curiosity of what heaven is like.

So, what is this about?

Well, Jesus already told us back in John 11, verse 4.

This sickness is not to end in death, but

for the glory of God.

So that the Son of God may be glorified by it.

The glory of the sun is the issue,

the rest of the story, and what happened after

is irrelevant.

The purpose of this was

to bring glory to God, and glory to God incarnate

on earth, Jesus Christ.

So, the curtain fell, again,

on this scene, last time we were here, in John,

at the end of verse 44, and the scene ends,

so now we want to pick it up, as good expositors ought

to do, in the next verse, verse 45.

And what we have starting here is the aftermath.

And here come the responses that

we do get to learn about.

And they are predictable, because

we've seen these responses like this all

through this gospel of John.

And before we get into it, I want to remind you of a statement made by Peter.

In Acts 3, Peter was preaching in Jerusalem

in the temple courtyard.

And at that time, there were masses of Jewish people who were there.

It was his second sermon after the ascension

of Jesus, after the day of Pentecost,

and he indicts the Jews in

this sermon with an ironic,

astonishing accusation.

Look what he says about him in verse 15.

I'm looking at a particular phrase in verse 15,

but put to death, the

prince of life.

You put to death, Peter is saying, the

prince of life, the Greek word translated the prince.

That phrase actually means the author, the

founder.

could also be translated the source, how

ironic, you killed

the life giver.

Think about that.

We learned back in John 1, in him was life, in

him, and the power of life, and being in and of himself.

Nothing was made without him because he made everything that was made, John said.

Think about what he told, Martha, I am the resurrection

and the life.

He said, on the way, the truth, and the life.

He doesn't just give life.

He's the source of life.

He's God.

He's the God man.

He is the author of life, as we know it.

The universe, and people, as human beings

don't exist, without his

creating life, as we know it, more

ironically, in the verse before, verse 15, Peter

says in Acts 3:14, but

you disowned the

holy and righteous one, and asked for

a murderer to be granted to you.

That's Barabbas, right?

So he's preaching to these Jews, you killed

the author of life, and you gave life to a killer.

Wow.

But that's the nature of unbelief.

And in the history of crime, what

happened on Calvary is a crime

that has no parallel.

It is without equal in its heinousness.

When God became a man, man murdered

God in human flesh.

There's no crime that comes close to that crime.

Now, as you know, it had been the desire of

the religious leaders in Israel to kill Jesus for a long time now.

We've seen that in our study of this Gospel of John.

And this miracle is really the final straw.

They cannot, they just simply cannot let this man live any longer.

As we're fixing to see, they're going to call a council together.

And in that council, they're going to say, what

are we doing?

We cannot let this man go on like this?

They are completely oblivious

to the fact that Jesus just raised

a man from the dead, for heaven's sake.

I mean, on top of everything else that

he's done up to this point.

Never, never lose sight of the fact that

it is a radical radical claim for

anybody to say, I am God.

What if I came up in here today?

I got something for hell, y'all.

I'm God.

Huh?

I think the deacons would have a meeting.

with Roger Dale, and that would be my last day.

Anybody who makes that claim

is to be rejected out of hand, no matter who

says it with one exception.

And that's Jesus.

He said he was God.

But he is the only person in

the history of the world who made that claim,

and then proved it, with clear,

irrefutable evidence.

And, as you know, you have two choices of what to do with that information.

You can believe it, or you can reject it.

Jesus said in Luke 11:23.

He who is not with me is

against me.

There's no third possibility.

You understand that?

There's no safe middle ground.

There's no third way.

All the evidence demands belief.

But still, no matter what he did, no matter what he said, no

matter how clear the evidence was, the Jewish

leaders of Jesus' day hated Jesus'

guts and wanted him dead.

Now, as we come here to the end of

this, 11th chapter, we're

going to see a literally like a microcosm

of what we've seen throughout the whole ministry of Jesus,

and in reality, what we still see today, in our day.

There are people who believe in Jesus, and

they know him and believe in him savingly,

with saving faith.

But there are also people who do not believe in Jesus.

And in fact, they are aggressively hostile

towards Jesus.

They had them back then.

They still have them today, and all through history.

And then there is that massive group of people, which

makes up the majority report in the United States

of America that have some sort of marginal,

sentimental attitude, and intellectual

belief, but not true saving faith, and that is

equally as damning.

They say they believe in Jesus, but they don't give evidence of that belief

with the way they carry theirself in the way they live their life.

And we're going to meet the first group starting here in verse 45.

Look at it with me.

It says, Therefore, many of the Jews, who came

to Mary and saw what he had done, believed in him.

Now, this is the same group of the many

that were who came to console Mary

and Martha back in verse 19.

And remember, that we learned, that this was a pretty substantial

family, with Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

This village of Bethany.

Remember, there was two Bethanies I told you about, and this one was

just two miles east of Jerusalem near the Mount of Olives.

It was right on that main road that went to Jericho.

That was a major highway.

So folks from Jerusalem would be real familiar

with this village, kind of like Baton

Ridge is directly connected to Central, where kind of a suburb

of Baton Rouge.

And obviously, lots of people from Jerusalem were from Milliar with this family.

So you got those folks.

And the villagers in Bethany, you got those folks.

And these make up the many who are described here.

We don't know exactly how many, but had to be a pretty sizable group of people.

Remember, from our last time, our last couple of times, that we went

through these sermons about this event.

There have been four days of mourning.

The resurrection has happened.

And now in this passage, they're still here.

They're still here.

They have witnessed something that nobody ever, ever

expects to see in their lifetime.

How can we kind of make an example to get the gravity of this?

Just imagine our modern day funerals.

Imagine, old Uncle Joe has passed on to the next life.

And you're there at Raven Horse in the funeral home,

and he's in the casket with the makeup

bone, and he's graveyard dead, and somebody comes

in and says, Uncle Joe, come forth.

And old Uncle Joe just rises up out the cache.

That's what we're talking about here, folks.

That's what happened there at the tomb.

same thing, just modern for us.

Same thing.

So these people are shell shocked,

as we would be, right?

I mean, you can't even...

I can't have...

I don't have words to describe how shocked they were, okay?

I'm just trying to tell you.

And because this miracle was so clear, and

so absolutely unmistakable,

obviously, their hearts

are open to the reality that

this man, Jesus, really, truly

is who Martha City is.

This very well may be the Messiah right here.

The Son of God,

Who else can do this?

And we assume that there is a genuine belief, because

when Jesus asked Martha back in verse 26,

do you believe, and she said, Yes, I believe, then

you get right here to verse 45, look at it in the

same context, and it says, many of the Jews,

same word believed.

So with that verb, in the same context, it's reasonable

to assume, that it has the same meaning.

and the same significance.

They genuinely believed with saving faith.

And I would say they certainly, you would believe.

I mean, what would you believe if you saw what they saw?

They saw the glory of God live in living color,

will the dead man come to life?

They believed, as we learned back in John 1, that

they were given the right to become the children of God.

They were redeemed.

So said all that to say, Many of

the people at this event were genuinely saved, with

true genuine regeneration and saving faith.

There is a kind of believing that doesn't save.

We learned about that back in John chapter 2, many

believe, remember, after watching the signs and

wonders and miracles of Jesus, but it says, on his part,

remember, we read this, he was not entrusting himself

to them, for he knew all men, and because

he didn't need anyone to testify concerning men,

for he himself knew what was in man.

He knew their belief was just a superficial intellectual belief,

like the demons believe, and they tremble.

So, as we'll see a little later here, that was a superficial belief.

That's the kind of belief that Nicodemus had at first.

Praise God not what he died with, but at first.

It's not sufficient to save, it's sad, and

it's equally as damning as any other kind of unbelief that there is.

But here at the funeral of Lazarus, his first group is very encouraging.

Haven't demonstrated regeneration in saving faith, but let's move to this second group.

The second group, we're going to call them the murderers.

Group 1 is the mini, Group 2 is the murderers, and they take up the

bulk of the rest of this section, verse 46.

We returned to look at our old pals, the Pharisee.

They were a very powerful group.

They were basically the architects of

Judaistic synagogue religion of

that day, as you know, it had got wildly,

wildly off course, from the words of the New Testament,

of the Old Testament.

These men had total power and control over the people.

They dominated the people.

With all of the extra laws and rules and Sabbath

restrictions and restraints that they had added to

the Old Testament, and all the people pretty much knuckled under the Pharisees.

He didn't do that.

You got thrown out of the synagogue.

And if you got thrown out of the synagogue, you

became a pariah in the community.

You were cut off from all social contact in

the community, and at that point, you might as well have been a leper, if

they kicked you out of synagogue for breaking any of their rules.

So everybody sort of just took whatever abuse the

Pharisees dished out, because they wanted to stay in the system.

And some of these people, who were, obviously,

as we're going to see real suck ups to the Pharisees, they

were there mourning at the funeral

of Lazarus, and when they

see what happened, and the miracle and the whole nine,

they decide, well, we're going to go report this to the Pharisees.

Look at verse 46.

But some of them went to the Pharisees, and told them the

things which Jesus had done.

So they gave them the incredible story.

He was graveyard dead.

And he come out of that tomb when Jesus told him to come forth, and he

had been dead for four days.

There's no doubt he was dead, and there's absolutely no doubt right now he's alive.

You can go over there and talk to him if you want to.

Now, this group is more concerned about the Pharisees than

their own souls, obviously.

And that is, folks, what false religion does.

False religion allows you to

give up your soul to please somebody who

is the destroyer of your soul, namely,

the person at the top of that false religion.

Take your pick.

Muhammad, go down the line.

And that's what all false religion does.

So they report, they saw the miracle, they describe the

miracle, and with a sinister intention,

you can believe that for sure, they tell the Pharisees

because everybody already knows how much

they hate Jesus.

Everybody knows this.

And these people know that

this is really going to put the Pharisees over

the edge when they hear about this.

This is the extreme hardness of

the human heart in the face of literally overwhelming evidence.

Evidence means nothing at all to these people.

And why do they hate Jesus so much?

Jesus already told me in scripture.

The world hates me because I testify to it that

its deeds are evil.

That's why.

To call sin sin.

Call it out.

They hated him because he told them they were evil.

not only in their sin, but also in their religion.

Now, let me tell you something.

You can test this out and watch what happens.

It's one thing to tell people you're evil in your sin.

There's a lot of people that can handle that.

I mean, like, if you had come to me before I was saved

and said, do you know you're a sinner?

I would say, yeah, I sure am.

Boy, you better believe I am.

I'm a big one.

I got really no problem with it.

But when you tell people that they're

evil in their righteousness in their religion,

in the false religion, that they're caught up in,

Oh, they'll really hate you for that, and

they will come against you for that.

So even though the creator, God, had put his glory on display

through the Son of God.

They didn't really see it.

So look what happens next in verse 47.

Therefore, the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council.

And this was a meeting of the whole Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin was the religious tribunal.

This is the ultimate Supreme Court, Congress of Israel.

The Sanhedrin was made up of the Pharisees, the Sadducees,

the chief priests, former high priests, and members of

the high priestly families.

This was the religious elite of Israel.

People with money.

People with power, people with influence

in Israel, and they convene this council.

Look next in verse 47, and

we're saying, what are we doing?

Well, this man is performing many signs, verse 48.

If we let him go on like this.

In other words, what are we doing?

We got to stop this man.

We have to act.

So as John Calvin put it, they come up with a plausible

disguise.

Oh, what a way with words Calvin had.

They create a theoretical,

imaginary, disaster ahead

because they want Jesus dead.

They don't believe this, but they invent this.

Notice, they say, for this man is performing many signs.

It's pretty wild, really.

This is the testimony of the people who hated

Jesus that what he was doing was miraculous.

They're admitting it right here, performing many signs.

And that's because nobody could deny that

the miracles of Jesus were indeed miracles.

You couldn't deny them.

It's pretty crazy that there are liberals today who

deny the miracles of Jesus when his enemies never denied them.

The ones who saw them firsthand.

They never denied that the miracles were not real.

Look, again, in verse 48,

They say, 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.

You know what that is?

It's used today.

It's called political hyperbole.

All men will believe in him, really.

And the Romans will come and take away our place in the nation.

We will lose our position.

We will lose our power.

We will lose our nation.

Talk about a doomsday scenario.

This is the end of everything, if he goes on.

Kind of like climate change.

We're 15 years away from being underwater, all of us, right?

We can't allow this to go on.

We gotta act.

We're going to lose everything.

This is an idea concocted as a pretense to kill Jesus.

for his teaching, which tore every

time at the very fabric of their false religious system.

That was the problem.

By the way, this is the same thing that they're going to say to Punchus Pilate later.

They're going to tell him, well, if you don't crucify Jesus,

you're no friend of who?

Caesar.

Because Jesus is going to lead a revolution, and when

he does, Caesar's not going to be happy, and

you're already on thin ice, buddy.

as we've talked about before.

Listen, they knew Jesus wasn't a revolutionary.

They knew this.

What did Jesus say?

Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God?

What is God, right?

Did Jesus ever pick up a sword?

You see that in scripture anywhere?

Did Jesus ever start a revolution?

Political?

Jesus wasn't anti Roman.

Not anywhere I can see.

Jesus didn't try to free any slaves, did he?

Did you see that anywhere in scripture?

Do you see Jesus getting involved in politics or economics anywhere in New Testament?

And just a word to the liberal Christianity

that's now making inroads in politics, example

would be James Tallarico, the new senator

in Texas, just a word to him,

Jesus never got caught up in social justice, either.

He wasn't in any kind of social movement.

He didn't start an army, did he?

Anybody see Jesus starting an army?

I didn't.

He didn't need people to defend him.

He walked this earth as God in human flesh.

He was meek, he was compassionate.

He didn't go around killing people like Muhammad

did when he was here, quite the opposite.

He went around making dead people alive.

And they knew this.

So this is all just a ploy,

on their part, to create a massive potential

scenario, so that we can justify

killing Jesus, or else everybody's going to believe in, which,

again, is another testimony to the validity of his miracles.

His worst enemies, think about it.

The very people who really crucified him using the

hands of the Romans, believed in his miracles, because I'm

telling you, they had no other choice.

No amount of sleight of hand or magician's tricks could duplicate what Jesus did.

You get every sorcerer in the whole world to

stand outside and shout at Lazarus.

He's not ever coming out.

according to their word.

So, this man named Caiaphas steps up to the plate.

And I'm here to tell you, Caiaphas is really a despicable human being.

He was the son in law of Annas, Annas had

previously been the high priest.

Caiaphas is in that office now, because Rome allowed him to be there.

You understand what I'm saying?

And he knows that, in fact, Rome had the power

to depose any high priest.

Now, according to the Old Testament, oh, the high priest's office,

that was an office for life, like, you know, Supreme Court justice.

If it didn't, it didn't always work out that way, but

that was really the ideal in Judaism, once

you were a high priest, you were high priest, for life, but contrasts that with

the fact that Josephus, the great Jewish historian, tells

us that from the time of Herod the

Great, which was just about the time we moved from BC

to AD in world history, between Herod the Great,

and 70 AD, when Jerusalem is totally destroyed,

that's less than 100 years, there were 28 high

priests.

Now that's not the ideal.

So this position became a revolving door.

This became a power position, the

high priest, a political position.

There were people who were vying, buying, and

selling this position.

You even have reference in the New Testament to Annapas, Annas,

and Caiapas, both being the high priest at the same time.

That was not supposed to happen.

According to the Word of God, it was supposed to be much more strict than

this, the way they had it going at this point.

Caiaphas, as I said, was Annas' son in law.

So, the position kind of stayed in the family, kind

of like in South Carolina, tried to be.

But Caiaphas, mainly, he is there,

because he's not a threat to Rome, that's the main reason he's there.

He knows, hey, I've got this position of power as long

as I please Rome, and I make Rome happy, and

very interesting side note to this is found in verse 51.

Look down in verse 51, where it says, but being high priest that year.

That year is interesting, because that year, in reality,

is a final year, of any legitimate

high priest in history, of any illegitimate

priest in history, why do I say that?

Because a week later, after this day?

The veil in the temple was shredded from top to bottom.

at the crucifixion of Jesus.

And the priestly system of the old testament

at that moment when Jesus said it is

finished and the veil was rent, the priestly system became

null and void at that moment.

Any sacrifices that were done between that moment and

70 A.D. when the temple was flattened were irrelevant.

because the new cabinet had ushered in.

So Caiaphas, really, is the

last somewhat official high priest,

and from guess what?

That day in 70 A.D. to this day,

right here, 2026, there's never been another high priest in Judaism.

From that day to this, hmm, coincidence, you think?

Now back to this Council of the Sanhedrin.

These men right here are in crisis management mode.

If we let this man go on doing all what he's doing, everybody's going to

believe in him, the Romans will take away our place, and that's going to be the end of Israel.

We're not even gonna exist anymore.

And next in verse 49.

It says, but one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them,

you know nothing at all.

Now, he's talking to the whole Sanhedrin right here.

Picture this.

You're all ignorant.

Aren't you glad I'm here?

That's what he's saying to them.

You know nothing, and I've got the answer to everything, verse

50, nor do you take into account

that it is, look at this word, expedient.

Stop there.

He's talking to the Sanhedrin.

The elite.

And notice, he says, It is

expedient.

Not, it is just, not,

it is righteous, not,

it is correct, not, it is anything

other than expedient, beneficial,

look next, for you, that one man

die, for the people, and that

the whole nation, not perish.

Don't you get it?

He's saying it's beneficial.

Under the guise of being a noble politician, under

the guise of Jewish nationalism and patriotism,

this unscrupulous man is trying to get rid of

the biggest obstacle to his own power to

his own popularity and theology, and that is Jesus.

He wants Jesus dead.

And he's making the argument that if we don't kill him,

we're all going to die.

Again, just nonsensical, political, hyperbole,

either one man perishes, or the whole nation perishes, as their argument that he's making.

And the conclusion of the council is

going to be to follow the wishes

of the high priest, Caiaphas.

We've got to kill him.

It is going to be a revolution.

The Romans are going to come in.

They're going to massacre us.

Look at the words of verse 50 again.

It is expedient for you.

Follow this closely.

That one man die, for the

people, and that the whole nation not

perish, that one man die,

for the people,

Jesus must die, he's

saying here, to save the nation,

hmm, how strangely

true, big picture, that is.

How about that statement?

It's just not in the way that Caiaphas thought.

Huh?

The words of Caiaphas here have a deep, resonating

reality of truth that he never even understood

as the words were coming out of his mouth.

Because look next in verse 51 and 52.

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,

verse 52, and not for the nation only,

but in order that he, Jesus, might also gather

together into one, the children of God, who

were scattered abroad.

How fascinating that little tidbit is for us, huh?

This slick, brutal, very

corrupt high priest actually gave,

unbeknownst to his brain, a very clear statement

on the substitutionary atoning work of Christ.

He has no idea what he's actually saying.

And that's not surprising.

God used the mouth of Balaam's jackass to speak for him, right?

This is where you have to understand, there are no limits, folks, on what God can do.

Do not put a limit on God.

He will make fun of you, as he's basically doing right

here with Caiaphas.

Watch what you're fixin' to say, buddy, and what it really means.

Caipas had no idea what he was talking about.

He meant one thing, but God said, uh, I mean something different.

Put in the pages of scripture for all time in history,

and we're reading about it right here in 2026 on Hooper Road.

Proverbs 19, too.

Many plans are in a man's heart.

But the council of the Lord will stand.

You remember Joseph's

words to his brothers in Genesis 50, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

Let me tell you, what can we call?

We can call this divine irony.

And understand this.

Now, let me be clear.

We always want to be clear when it says there, look in verse 51, that he prophesied.

That doesn't mean that he had any prophetic gift.

Nowhere in scripture.

Does it say that about Caiaphas?

This isn't an actual prophecy that he gave out of his heart.

This is not a power that belonged to the high priest.

He said what he said, and it happened, so happened that what

happened in providence is that God had

ordered every word exactly, and gave it a completely

different meaning, and made sure that the Holy Spirit inspired

John to write it down.

So you were clear on the meaning in the following verses afterwards, but

every single word was absolutely correct.

So that through Caiaphas, and

his ignorant meaning with the words that he used, God took

the same words to declare the true impact of the Lord

Jesus Christ, death.

Now, Jesus was going to die for the nation.

And not only for the nation only, but in order that he,

Jesus, might also gather together into one, the

children of God scattered abroad.

He's died for the sins of the people scattered all over the world, Jew

and Gentile, which is going to make up the church.

So the hateful, ignorant, trumped up words of

Caiaphas, they actually turn out to be absolutely true,

in the big picture, giving us a foretaste of what it's going to be like.

When we go through the Passion week here in the Gospel of

John, how every single solitary detail,

no matter who is doing what, for what reason, is perfectly

fitting into God's purposes, and Caiaphas

is just a link in the chain, begun by God's

decree, before the foundation of the world, until

God fulfills his purpose.

Using men, however, he sees fit to accomplish his purpose.

But look next in verse 53.

So from that day on, they plan together to kill him.

Apparently, it was a unanimous vote.

We have to kill him.

to save the nation.

Caiaphas' speech worked.

They decided to kill him from then on.

and it didn't take long.

They're pretty amped up, and at the end of the next week,

they were able to accomplish it.

The end of the next week is Good Friday.

but also perfectly within the timing,

and the purpose of God, that as the

lambs were being slaughtered at the same time, the lamb was being slaughtered

on Calvary's tree at the same time.

Now, as a final group, to add to these murderers,

next in verse 54, look at it with me.

Therefore, Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly

among the Jews.

Isn't that something?

The eternal Son of God becomes an outlaw.

as he walked this earth.

He's a wanted man in Israel.

Says next, we went away from there to the country

near the wilderness into a city called Ephraim, and

there he stayed with the disciples.

Now this was a town about 12 miles away.

And next in verse 55, we come to the final group.

The multitudes.

They were stirred by Jesus, but they were indifferent.

Look at verse 55.

Now, the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went

up to Jerusalem, out of the country before the Passover,

to purify themselves, the Levitical

law laid out in the book of Leviticus, and 2 Chronicles, all

kinds of ceremonial cleansings

were required to participate in before you could

participate in Passover, so they all come pouring

into Jerusalem prior to the actual Passover,

to get all of that stuff done, and notice, as they're gathering,

verse 56, so they were seeking for Jesus.

Why?

I mean, look, there was no internet.

There was no TV.

He has been the focal point of

the past few years in

every person's mind in Israel.

Everybody's thinking about Jesus all the time.

He's healing people all over the place.

He's the topic of conversation, every single day

throughout this nation.

And look next, and we're saying to one another, as they stood in the temple, what do you think?

That he will not come to the feast at all?

Everybody knows how the leaders feel.

They know how much he's hated, and then verse 57.

Now, the chief priest and the Pharisees had given orders

that if anyone knew where he was, he was to report it

so that they might seize him.

So, what can we say about this crowd?

Well, were they curious about Jesus?

Yeah, sure they were.

Did they know all about Jesus?

Yeah.

Were they fascinated with Jesus?

How could you not be fascinated with Jesus?

Have you got anywhere within his field of gravity at any time?

And they're all asking,

Well, where is he?

We want to see him.

You know what they want.

They wanted to see some more of those miracles.

You think he'll show up here at the Passover?

Well, guess what?

He did.

He did show up.

And what happened?

What happened when he showed up?

What happened when he came?

Well, chapter 12 was going to tell us when he came into town, they shouted

to him, 'Host, Danny, in the house.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

That's the triumphal entry.

That's when he came.

He came in on a Friday, on a Monday, but

by Friday, what were these saying people saying?

Crucify him?

Killing him.

And we're going to go through every bit of that, verse by verse, when we get to it one day.

But at the end of the day, it

always comes down to the same issue when

it comes to Jesus.

You believe savingly, not on your terms, but on

his terms, stabingly, or you reject.

The evidence is clear.

There is no lack of evidence for Jesus whatsoever.

You either reject with hostility and animosity

and anger, or you reject with your superficiality and

indifference, and just, oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus, man, I'm a good guy.

But either way, there's only one heaven, and there's only one hell.

That's it.

And no matter how you go about rejecting Jesus,

with your hatred or your sentimental American good feelings,

you will end up, as Jesus said, dying in

your sins, if you reject him, no matter how you do it, and

there's no changing that situation once you get to where you're going.

attached in one of the most important question in

all of the human experience, which, by the way, doesn't last very long.

is what Jesus asked Martha very simply.

Do you believe?

Now, you got to understand what believe means, as

I've been laboring to say to you today, and I always labor

to say to you, you got to understand what believe means,

and if you do, what

we going to do now is celebrate,

what we put our faith and belief in.

And that's the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

That's what this is about.

And if this is the most important reality in your life,

your faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, then

being obedient to the command in coming together

on the Lord's Supper, that should equally

be important to you, to participate

as a believer in Jesus Christ.

And when you stand up and you walk down that aisle

before God, who sees you, and your sisters

and brothers in the church, when you stand up to walk down that aisle,

you are saying, I am a believer with saving faith in the Lord Jesus

Christ, because that's the only people that are supposed to come to this table.

Not unbelief.

This is for believers.

Matter of fact, this whole worship service is not designed for unbelievers but for believers.

If an unbeliever comes in,

Here's the gospel, get saved.

Come on, join a family.

But we don't design the worship service, but for unbelief,

only for those who believe.