John 11:45-57 “Are You in Spiritual Danger?”

1:16Over the next several years, she raised $700 million from investors on the condition that she would not have to disclose how the technology worked. By 2015, the company was valued at $10 billion. And she owned half of it. That same year, the Wall Street Journal reported that her technology produced unreliable results. And so Theranos was actually rigging tests to make the results look better than they actually were. All along the way, Holmes denied the truth to protect her company and the wealth that it was creating.

2:00Before long, the FDA and the Securities and Exchange Commission were all involved. And in January of this year, founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of conspiracy and wire fraud. The Apostle John warns us not to love the world or the things of the world because it's passing away. But the temptation is strong. And if we're not careful, we ourselves can be found doing whatever it takes to get ahead and stay ahead, even denying the truth.

2:42Today, in John chapter 11, we're going to learn that we are in great spiritual danger when we deny the truth for worldly gain. Now, before we jump into today's text, I want to take just a moment to review where we. Been the past couple of weeks in chapter 11. For those of you who have been here, you've heard the sermons. If not, they're online. You can catch up and listen to them then. But at the beginning of chapter 11, Jesus' friend Lazarus gets sick, and so his sisters, Mary and Martha, send to Jesus to let him know.

3:16And they surely believed that Jesus would hurry over and heal their brother and his friend. I mean, after all, Jesus had healed hundreds, if not thousands, of people that he had never met before in his earthly life. So surely he would come and heal Lazarus. But I want you to look and be reminded of how Jesus responds in John chapter 11, verses 4 through 6. Take a look at the screen. But when Jesus heard it, he said, This illness does not lead to death, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

4:05So Jesus and the disciples have a conversation about this, and then Jesus tells the disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep. And they think that Jesus means he's taking a nap. So look now at John 11 on the screen, verses 14 and 15. Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died, and for your sake, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him. So they go to the tomb where Lazarus is buried, and Jesus commands them to take away the stone from the entrance. Now, Martha does not think this is a good idea.

4:41Martha says, Lord, he's been dead for four days, and there will be an odor. If you ever read the King James, it's awesome. You know, Lord, by this time, he stinketh. So you can incorporate that in your vocabulary. He stinketh. But Jesus has them move that stone anyway. And I want you to look at John 11:41 and 42 right before we get to our passage today. So they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. Then Jesus commands Lazarus to come out of the grave and he raises him from the dead.

5:25So the reason I remind you of all that background here in John chapter 11 is that according to Jesus, he raised Lazarus from the dead for three reasons: for the glory of God and that the Son may be glorified through it, so that the disciples would believe, and so that everyone in the crowd standing around who saw it and heard about it would also believe. Jesus has bigger goals here than just performing another great miracle. He's got much bigger goals than that. His intended purpose in raising Lazarus is that God would be glorified and that he himself, the Son, would be glorified so that everyone would believe in him. So keep that in mind. And let's pick up here in verse 45 with our passage this week. So after Jesus has raised him from the dead, verse 45, many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.

6:27Now you might remember from our study in the Gospel of John that John almost always calls Jesus' miracles signs. He calls them signs. And he records seven of these signs in great detail. Jesus changing the water into wine, healing the official son and the paralyzed man, feeding 5,000 people, walking on water, healing the man born blind, and then raising Lazarus from the dead. Seven distinct signs that he goes into great detail about. John's word choice about these miracles is deliberate. He chooses the word signs instead of miracles because the word signs shows that they are pointing to a greater reality.

7:14That this is not just a cool trick to show that he has lots of power. This is pointing to a greater reality about his true identity as the Son of God. But people miss signs all the time. I do it myself. My family will tell you, we've done this a lot this summer on road trips. I miss signs all the time. I'm so busy looking out the window and taking in all the sights that I miss the 27 signs that are saying that my exit is coming up.

7:46And here's the thing: even when I see the signs, I can rarely interpret them. When it says next exit, does that mean like this one right here or the one after it? And it doesn't matter because I miss them both. But either way, I misinterpret the signs. The same thing happened all throughout Jesus' ministry. He performed many signs. People just missed them or they misinterpreted them. And so we all know people in our lives, our coworkers, neighbors, classmates, whoever it might be, who say things like, I would believe in God, I would change my life and live differently if he just gave me a sign.

8:32Well, friends, he's given us countless signs, many of which are recorded in the Bible, many others which can be observed and seen as we study the world and as we make scientific observations about this universe. There are signs all around us. The problem is not a lack of signs, it's us. We either miss them or we misinterpret them. And that same thing happened to some of the Jews. Who were present when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead? They were there. They saw the stone rolled away. They heard Jesus call to him. They watched Lazarus walk out. They saw that he was indisputably and truly alive again. And what do they do? Look at verse 46.

9:21But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. They go straight to the Pharisees and they tattle on Jesus. Now Jesus is raising the dead, and it's not fair. It's amazing that a man could be raised from the dead and the first reaction that some people would have would be to go to the authorities and report him as though he's committed a crime. But that's what happens. Let's pick up in verse 47.

9:50So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 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. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council. That is the Sanhedrin. It's made up of 70 members, and the high priest served as the president of this council. The Sanhedrin decided both civil and criminal matters for the Jewish people.

10:26And I want you to notice that the council doesn't deny that Jesus is. Performing lots of signs. They grant that right off the bat. Again, it's not an issue of a lack of signs. They see them. They acknowledge that there's lots of signs. They didn't miss them. They misinterpreted them. They ask each other, what are we going to do? Again, verse 48, if we let him go on like this. Like what? Raising dead people to life? If we let him go on performing miracles like that?

11:03What I want you to see here is the pride and the spiritual blindness that would cause these religious leaders to think that they could actually control a man who is able to raise people from the dead, or that it's even a good idea to try. But friends, we too are often blinded by our own pride. We think we always know what is best for us, for our families, for our church, for our companies. And then if God doesn't do what we want or what we expect in the time frame and in the way that we have decided is best, we often become bitter and cynical. We say things like, I'm not sure I can trust God anymore.

11:54All because he didn't do things the way that we decided was best in the time frame that we decided was best. We suffer from the same pride as these religious leaders. Verse 48 again: if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. Yes, good. I think that's what Jesus is going for. Since he literally said that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, so that everyone would see and believe that he is the Son of God sent from the Father. But you see, there's more at play here. The Sanhedrin isn't just worried that everyone is going to believe in a man that they have decided is not the Messiah.

12:40Now, look what they say. Verse 48, one more time. 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. Okay, now we're getting somewhere. The truth finally comes out. The driving force behind their rejection of Jesus is their belief that if people go after Jesus and begin following him, then Rome is going to come and take away their place, that is the temple, and their nation, that is, that they're going to be exiled once again out of the promised land.

13:23That's the fear. You know, apparently there's no such thing as truth ceremony. A substance that you can inject in people to make them tell the truth. But fear is as good of a substance to make you tell the truth as anything else. Our fears reveal what we really love, what we really value. When we are afraid, the truth comes out. And so, if you're brave enough, a good spiritual exercise is to sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and to write down the question: What am I afraid of?

14:02What am I afraid of? Getting sick? Dying? Not having enough money? Losing your freedom? Not meeting the expectations of family members or friends or coworkers? What am I afraid of? And then follow it up with this question. Why am I afraid of that? What's the reason that I'm afraid of that? Because you see, our fears reveal what we really value, what's really important to us. What were the religious leaders afraid of? That if Jesus went on performing signs, everybody was going to believe in him.

14:47Why were they afraid of that? Because if everyone started following Jesus, the Roman government was going to take notice. If it looks like everyone is following Jesus, giving their allegiance to Jesus, Jesus worshiping Jesus, then Caesar has a rival. And Caesar tolerates no rivals. So he'll send his army to come and put down what looks like an insurrection, a popular uprising. They will sack the city, burn the temple to the ground, and deport everybody, starting with the leaders, the Sanhedrin. In other words, they will follow the exact same playbook that Babylon used 600 years earlier.

15:38Now, I don't want you to misunderstand me. It's not like the religious leaders loved the way things were. They hated being occupied and controlled by Rome. They hated having governors and soldiers all over the place, taxing them and taking advantage of them and intimidating them. They hated all of those things. But in the status quo, they lived in the promised land. In the status quo, the temple was rebuilt and expanded and beautiful and functional every day of the week.

16:17In the status quo, they had prestige and some semblance of control. So is Jesus the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ? As he claimed to be? Here's the reality: the religious leaders didn't even care. They didn't even care. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, but either way, he was going to attract the attention of Rome, which would upset the status quo, and that's the one thing they could not tolerate because then their worst fears would be realized.

16:59Friends, we should all take the time to consider our own fears and what they reveal about what's most important to us. The religious leader said, if we let him go on like this, everybody's going to believe in him, and then Rome is going to come and take away our place and our nation. But every one of us has our own if-then statements. If I start following Christ and get baptized, my family is going to mock me, maybe even disown me.

17:33If I share my faith at work or on campus, I may not get promoted. I may not have the favor of my professors. I may even lose my job or my opportunity to further my education. If I give generously to the church, to missionaries, to worthy ministries in our community, I won't have enough money. If I join a church, then I'll lose the freedom to come and go as I please, because then I'll have responsibilities to serve flesh and blood Christians in tangible ways.

18:17You see, we all have these if-then statements based on our fears that show what we really love and what we really value, whether that's acceptance by other people, or job security, or material comfort, or the freedom that we so desire. And so, maybe after identifying our own if-then statements, we replace it with a different one. If Jesus truly is the Son of God, then I can trust and obey him in every area of my life. Let's pick up in verse 49.

19:01But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all, 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. He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on, Made plans to put him to death.

19:35Caiaphas had been serving as the high priest since 18 AD, so about 12 to 14 years at this point. And he saw a way to keep the status quo, to keep the temple, to keep the land, to keep the power and prestige that they enjoyed as members of the Sanhedrin. All they had to do was arrest Jesus, hand him over to Rome, accuse him of treason, and let them put him to death. That's all they had to do. What Caiaphas didn't understand is that he spoke better than he knew when he said, It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.

20:21Because the Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saw Caiaphas' words for what they really were: a prophecy, reminding us that God can speak truth through anyone, and that God works sovereignly, even through the evil plans of people, to bring about his purposes, which can never be thwarted. You think about the book of Genesis and how Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery and convinced their dad that he had been killed. Years later, when they have to come, To Egypt looking for food in the height of the famine, Joseph tells his brothers, You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many lives.

21:15In the same way, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin meant evil against Jesus when they plotted to put him to death, but God meant it for good. His plan all along, revealed in Genesis 3 immediately after the fall, was that he would raise up the seed of the woman to rescue his people. And that seed, that ancestor of Adam and Eve, he would have his heel bruised by Satan. But he would crush the head of the serpent, defeating sin and death once and for all.

21:49And so throughout his ministry, Jesus declared that he was the fulfillment of the promise first made to Adam and Eve and reaffirmed by all of the prophets century after century. Look at what Jesus said about himself. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Look at Matthew chapter 20. And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes. And they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. And he will be raised on the third day.

22:40And then, just last chapter, John chapter 10, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. Listen to this. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

23:29The Sanhedrin planned to have Jesus killed. But if you remember in Acts chapter 4, when the early church is being persecuted, they pray to the sovereign Lord, and they say that nothing happened to Jesus except exactly what God's hand had predestined to take place. It was his plan all along. One man would die for the people. Jesus' entire life was one long. March to Jerusalem, where he would go and willingly lay down his life for the sheep. No one would take his life from him. He would lay it down and he would take it up on the third day. He died in our place so that we would not have to face eternal punishment for our own sins. That is the good news of the gospel. And friends, it's good news for everybody, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, all types of people, every nation on earth.

24:34But to receive that forgiveness that Jesus paid for, we all individually have to do what the religious leaders failed to do. We have to receive the truth about who Jesus is. We have to believe the truth that he came to die a substitutionary death in our place and for our sins. We must turn from our sin and turn to him in faith. We must believe him. We must believe the truth if we are going to be saved. Have you done that? Have you personally, not your parents, not your siblings, not your spouse, not your roommate, have you personally turned to Christ in faith and received him?

25:17Or have you been denying the truth? Verse 54. Jesus, therefore, no longer walked. Openly among the Jews, but went from there to a region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples. Now, the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 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? 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.

26:04So from this point forward, the religious leaders are looking to put Jesus to death. But to do that, they have to find him. And they don't even know where he is. Again, you see the irony of the entire situation. This is the group of people that said, if we let him go on like this, if we let him go on, they can't even find him to arrest him, and they think that they're in control. So Jesus withdraws with his disciples, not because he was afraid of what the Sanhedrin was going to do to him. Jesus already told them in Matthew 20, we are going up to Jerusalem, and we are going up to Jerusalem for this purpose, so that I will be arrested, so that I will be handed over, so that I will be flogged and crucified, and on the third day, raised from the dead. That's why we are going, so I can give my life as a ransom for many. And gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

27:06Jesus did not withdraw to a secret place with his disciples because he was scared of what the Sanhedrin was going to do to him. He withdrew with his disciples because it was not yet his time. These religious leaders were not in charge of the timeline. Jesus was in charge of the timeline. And so he was going to lay down his life during the Passover because Jesus is the Passover Lamb. Now, remember, the Passover is that time of the year that each Jewish family sacrificed a spotless lamb. They shed its blood, they spread the blood over the doorpost, reminding them that the wages of sin is death, and that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.

27:57So when Jesus began his ministry, John the Baptist testified, Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Remember what Scripture says? All of those sacrifices before that time, they were reminders, reminders of sin and our need for forgiveness year after year. Jesus did not lay down his life as another reminder that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. That's what the whole sacrificial system was for. Jesus came and laid down his life. Life as a final sacrifice to take away sin.

28:37That's what he came to do. I want you to look at Hebrews chapter 9 on the screen. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Jesus is indeed the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so he would come up to Jerusalem during the Passover feast and lay down his life on his timeline because he is the perfect Passover lamb, the one that we've all been waiting for.

29:30In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a rich man and a poor man that, interestingly enough, he calls Lazarus. Well, in the parable, both men die, but Lazarus goes to heaven and is comforted, and the rich man goes to hell and is in torment. And the rich man cries out to Abraham, and he asks him to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue because he's in agony in the Flame.

30:02But Abraham says, no can do, because nobody can cross over from heaven to hell. There is a chasm fixed, and that's not how it works. So the rich man replies, and I want you to look at the rest of this parable on the screen. Luke 16, 27, and he said, Then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

30:32But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. He said to them, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. Now, how about that? In the parable, the rich man is absolutely convinced that if somebody rose from the dead, his brothers would definitely repent. He's sure of it. If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

31:15But Abraham says he's wrong. He says, If you will not listen to the word of God, you will not believe even if somebody is raised from the dead. Friends, Jesus' friend Lazarus really did die. He really was buried for four days, and Jesus really did raise him from the dead. And yet some still didn't believe in Jesus because their sinful hearts were willing to deny the truth for worldly gain. That was true of me. I was raised in the church. I was familiar with the Bible. I'd heard about Jesus, but I wanted what I wanted.

32:06I was unwilling to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior because I had my own agenda. I had my own plans for my life. I had my own sinful pleasures that I was unwilling to give up. I knew that if I followed Jesus, I would have to give up those things. I knew that if I followed Jesus, I could no longer set my agenda for my life. I needed God to give me a new heart, new eyes to see, new ears to hear. I needed to be born again.

32:37And friends, for some of you today, you might be in the same place that I was. You may know something about Jesus, but you've also been unwilling to submit to him as Lord and Savior, to acknowledge the truth about him because you have your own agenda for your life. You have your own goals, maybe even your own sinful pleasures. That you are unwilling to give up. That might be true of you. You know, Jesus will get in the way of those things. And if that's true for you, you are in great spiritual danger.

33:15You are in danger of getting everything that you ever wanted. That's the thing about our community: we have a lot of go-getters. We have a lot of people who go to university and get an education and go and start companies and work in companies and climb the ladder and do all these great things. You are in danger of getting everything you ever wanted and then losing your soul. I don't want that for you. No Christian here wants that for you. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. And he proved to be the Son of God by His many signs, including raising Lazarus from the dead, but especially through His own death and resurrection that He said He did for you. All of that was for you.

34:06His resurrection is the ultimate evidence to back up His claim that He is the Son of God, the one who alone has authority to forgive sin. And so I hope and pray this morning, if you've not done that yet, that you will turn from your sin and you will trust in Jesus Christ. He is the only way to forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Now, if you're already following, Jesus. It could be the case that you genuinely believe that Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be. That he is the Christ, the Son of God.

34:42But I think for some Christians, somewhere along the way, you start off following Jesus, but little by little, you begin to pursue your own goals, your own agenda, maybe even your own sinful pleasures. And the thing about that trajectory change is it's not even that noticeable at first because you start off following Jesus, and if you just get off just a little bit, he's still kind of right in front of you. You can still see him. He's going that way. You're generally going that way. For a long time, it's not even noticeable that you're on a different path. But then one day you look around and it's like, whoa, whoa, I feel lost. Where is Jesus? And that's because you do that long enough. You pursue your own agenda. You pursue your own goals. You pursue your own sinful pleasures. And before long, that trajectory is taking you in a completely different direction. And for some of you, that's the case today. You are a Christian. You have trusted in Christ, but you've gotten off the path.

35:42You're in spiritual danger as well. And so this morning, if that's you, the worst thing you can do is continue to deny the truth and pursue worldly gain, believing that you aren't in spiritual danger. Jesus said, if you want to come after him, you've got to be. To pick up your cross and follow him, there is only one way, there's only one path, and it's really narrow. That's why we need one another, friends. We all get blinded to these things, and we can't see them. I'm so thankful for all of the conversations I've had over the years with members of our church who have helped me to adjust my course when I've gotten off the path. I'm starting to pursue my own agenda, my own thing, doing what I want to do, and somebody has to show me what I can't see for myself.

36:33And I know you all have done that for each other many times. We need one another for that reason. And so, I want to challenge you this morning to consider where the world may have or may be gaining a hold on your heart. I want to challenge you to open up your life to another Christian in our church. If you don't have a person or a group of people that you meet with regularly, you don't know where to start, come and find one of us, one of the pastors, a life group leader, one of the deacons. Afterwards, we will help you find people who want to encourage you, challenge you, help you to walk this Christian life. Because Jesus came that we would have life and have it abundantly.

37:15Let's pray. Father, we acknowledge this morning that we are not playing a game. Eternity is real. We will all spend eternity somewhere. We want to have the abundant life that you promised. But we confess that the world is enticing. The promises that the world makes to us are enticing. That's why it's tempting. And so, God, we pray this morning for ourselves, all of us who are believers, we pray that you would help us to see through your Holy Spirit, through prayer, through the word, through the church, what we can't see on our own.

39:00And that you would help us to get out of spiritual danger by following Jesus closely. And God, we pray for those who have joined us this morning who are not yet Christians, not yet following Jesus. I pray that you, through the Holy Spirit and your word this morning, have impressed upon them the danger that they are in by continuing to deny the truth and pursue worldly gain. We pray that you would bring new life this morning. That just as Lazarus was granted new life from the dead, we pray for new spiritual life for those who are spiritually dead.

39:42And we believe that you can and desire to do it. And so we pray for that. Help us this week as we seek to apply what you have so clearly shown us in your word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.