Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 What's always fun. When you start reading a book to see how it's put together and things that authors may do some put prefaces in the front. So you read the preface to find out what they think you should find out about the book. Before you start some, put an introduction that introduction starts the book to give you a direction for the book of how it may lay out. Then you've got the sense. You've got plots that take place. You've got character development that takes place. You've got conflict that takes place, conclusions that take place. And all of a sudden you've got that climax that takes place and brings all the things together. And occasionally, occasionally you get an author that tells you why they actually wrote the book. They actually said, here's the purpose of the book. And the gospel of John is one of those books.
Speaker 1 00:00:48 When John gets all the way down to the end of his book, chapter 20, he finally tells us why did he write his book? Here's what we read. John chapter 20 versus 30 and 31. Now Jesus did many other signs. Those signs are the miracles that take place in the book of John Jesus did many other signs of miracles and the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is a Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So John says, there's these signs that you should pay close attention to. But interestingly, he only records seven miracles in his whole book. So here's the seven miracles that we find ones we're pretty familiar with. First one, he performs is changing water to wine in John chapter two.
Speaker 1 00:01:35 Then he heals the Royal official son and does a healing of him at that time. And John chapter four, John chapter five is the healing of the paralytic. He's been at the pool for years waiting, get in the water. When the water was stirred, didn't happen and Jesus healed him. And we've all heard the story of the feeding of the 5,000, probably closer to 12 to 15,000, but he fed the 5,005 fish and two loaves. And then after that, he goes, walking on the water, her, and then we hear of him healing, a man born blind. And then John chapter 11 last week as pastor Michael preached the raising of Lazarus. And that, that is the last miracle that takes place in the book. And John starts to stop there and says, this is it somes supposed to happen from this point? And are those seven miracles.
Speaker 1 00:02:21 You're somehow able to conclude that Jesus is a Christ and that believing in him, you can have eternal life. And we come to that place here in John chapter 11, starting verses 45 to 57. Now, as we do that, it's understanding that John puts a real emphasis on the word believe, and it's a verb. It's not a noun. It's a verb. Believe has some action to it. He never uses the word faith. He never talks about having faith. He talks about believing something you do. Now. Here's how often that word is used in the new Testament. Here's what we find out. Believe it's used 269 times in the new Testament. Okay? Out of that two hundred sixty nine, one hundred and ten of them are just in this gospel. So 110 times in 21 chapters, John uses a word believe that works out to about five times. Every chapter. His point is that whatever you read in this gospel, he wants you to do one thing.
Speaker 1 00:03:22 When you get done with it, he wants you to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have eternal life. So as he does that, he's gonna do it in our section here because what's happened is he's finished that last miracle. We've had the raising of Lazarus. That's all done. After the raising of Lazaruth things are done. All of a sudden what happens next is here's what we find out that happens. Everything is now gonna be moving forward very quickly. In fact, starting in chapter 12 to the end of the book, 48% of the whole book is written for one week in the life of Jesus. Everything up to this point has been leading up to this one major thing to take place the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And now it's all set Lazarus been raised, and we need to understand a few things just before that final week.
Speaker 1 00:04:15 Now I'm gonna read the passage to you. And this time I'm using the new American standard. My reason for that is they do a translation thing that gives us a little insight into what's actually happening. That the SV sort of shifted a little bit, all are good translation, but there's some one word to listen for is I read this for you. Okay? Starting in John chapter 11, you can follow along in your Bibles, starting verse 45. Many, therefore are the Jews who had come to Mary and be held what he had done believed in him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus has done. Therefore, the chief priest in the Pharisees convened a council, and we're saying, what are we doing for this man is performing many signs. We let him go on like this. All men will believe in him.
Speaker 1 00:05:03 And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation, but a certain one of them CAIF who was high priest that year said to them, you know, nothing at all, nor do you take into account that is, is expedient for you. That one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish. Now this, he did not say on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one, the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on, they planned together to kill him. Jesus, therefore no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country, near the wilderness, into the city called Efrim.
Speaker 1 00:05:53 And there he stayed with the disciples. Now the Passover, the Jews was at hand and men who went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves, therefore they were seeking for themselves, were saying to one another, as they stood in the temple, what do you think? Do you think he will not. He will come or not come to the feast at all. Now the chief priest in the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, that they may seize him. John makes us understand this. Therefore is pretty important. Cuz every time he uses it, he says something else is happening. So after that comes with the right rising of LAER from the dead, John wants us understand there's three different people that we wanna see. These scenes are taking place all simultaneously. He says, therefore, there's the Jews.
Speaker 1 00:06:45 And we have to understand what's happening with the Jews. Therefore there's a chief priest and Pharisees, oh, what are they doing? And what's happening. And therefore there's Jesus. And what is Jesus gonna do after this miracle as well? One miracle, three different responses taking place three different groups to look at John pause and say, take, take a moment, take time to see what actually happens in each situation to know what's taking place. So we're introduced first of all, therefore the Jews versus 45 to 46. And here's what we read many there for the Jews who had come to Mary and be held what he had done believed in him. So we have this group of Jews. They've watched this miracle take place. They saw Jesus stand at the tomb. They knew last would've been dead for three days. They heard Jesus say come forth Lazarin and out he came.
Speaker 1 00:07:40 And those Jews that were there with Mary comforting, encouraging her, whatever reason they were there with her, when they saw this, their response was actually to believe in Jesus. And that's that verb we're talking about. They actually believed, and it appears that they understood who he was. He was the Christ, the son of God. And by believing they would have eternal life and they believed they actually believed. But there's another group of Jews. They actually saw the same thing. They actually witnessed the very same thing, but they come away and their response is they're confused. They're not sure what they just saw. They're not sure what really just happened. So what they do is they pack up and they go and talk to the chief priest in Pharisees, say, here's what we saw. So they said, we were here in Bethany. We saw Jesus come before the grave.
Speaker 1 00:08:28 We saw him call out and say, Lazarus come forth. And he did. And we saw him raised from the dead, but we're not sure what this means. Why cuz the religious leaders had told them before Jesus, wasn't the Messiah. He wasn't the Christ. He wasn't the one to follow. And they're confused by what they've seen. So you've got Jews who believed you've got Jews who are confused. And John wants us to understand that's one group of people we see, we feel, see these Jews and we see this group of Jews. We find out, first of all, there's those who believed. And we find out those who are confused. So now we get shift to another scene. We shift from the Jews that had been there. Now we go to Jerusalem. We find out what takes place there with the chief priest in the Pharisees. And here's what we read of them.
Speaker 1 00:09:16 Starting in uh, verse 47. Therefore the chief priest in the Pharisees convene the council. Now what we have to understand is what this all means here. There's several things going on. It's understand the Jewish culture, what they have and the way things function in a, in a, I'll say political way, but also a legal way. They have set up. What's called the San Hedron. The San Hedron is made up of 71 leaders of their religious leaders, both sades and Pharisees. Sades usually ones were connected probably with more rich and the famous of the city and the Pharisees were more connected with the people of the city that took place. The Pharisees is more conservative in their theology than the sades, but they both made up this group of 70 people out of that San Hedron there's one person who's the high priest and they oversee it.
Speaker 1 00:10:08 So there's 71 who gathered to do work for the city. Now what took place at that time was a high priest would be in place and we're gonna learn about CAIF there's a high priest and the high priest was put in place in the old Testament. According to old Testament law for a whole life, they served once they became high priests, they stayed in that position until they died under Roman law though, they decide we want high priests that help us. So they served on behalf of the Roman government. So the government Roman government would appoint a high priest. When they appoint the high priest, he served as long as they wanted him to or until he wasn't serving them as they wanted him to. So we've got this hand Hedron so what takes place is the miracle takes place. Lazarus raised from the dead, the Jewish people come and tell them what they saw their response. As chief priest and Ferris says, we need to conduct a council. So they bring the whole San Hedron together to meet together, to discuss what they have just seen. Here's how they respond.
Speaker 1 00:11:15 They respond with the words, what are we doing for this man is performing many signs. So they recognize it's not just this one. They knew the seven signs he did. They knew all the other ones that this man, Jesus just performed the most unbelievable sign. You can imagine. He raised the man from the dead, but he did more than that. He did all these other signs that we saw as well. What are we gonna do with this man? They continue on. As they talk about him, what are we going to do? This man's from many signs. 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. So here's their concern. If we let Jesus keep preaching and living life like he is, he's gonna do more signs.
Speaker 1 00:12:01 Like he just did. You know, what's gonna happen. More Jewish. People are gonna believe just like these that believed here. And we were just told, be careful what's going on here. The confused Jews told 'em this. And they realized, listen, if there's more people who believe what's gonna happen. Well, all of a sudden you got all these people who are now saying Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God and the Roman government is not gonna like that. They're gonna become concerned. And the Roman government is gonna come in here and sweep in and they're gonna destroy our temple, the place. And they're also gonna destroy us the nation. And we're not sure what to do with this, with this one, man that is here doing this. And there's this confusion that takes place among them. Just imagine if you were there, there's 70 of us in a room and we're trying to figure out what to do.
Speaker 1 00:12:55 And we're all talking among ourselves. Confusion is sitting there and all of a sudden you hear all this mumbling and stuff going on. And finally the high priest CAIF speaks up. And here's what we hear verse 49, but a certain one of them CAIF who is high priest that year said to them. Now here's, CAIF keep in mind. There's a high priest of the San Hedron. He's appointed by the Roman government. CAAs actually served for 18 years as a high priest. Therefore very supportive of the Roman government. When it identifies that year, that year, it's talking about the year that Jesus died. He's the one overseeing this whole event and everything taking place. How's Kayas respond. He says this, you know, not just imagine you're sit in the room, all this confusion you're talking. All of a sudden he stands up and speaks. You know, nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish.
Speaker 1 00:13:59 So the Pharisees, chief peace are talking about, well, this man's gonna go on. What's gonna happen to the nation is gonna be lost to the Roman government. Kayus pauses them and say, wait a second, you guys don't understand. What's really going on here. If the problem is this one, man, Jesus, then isn't expedient. This one man dies. And then the nation can live. As opposed to this one man living and the whole nation dying. What if this one man dies, then the nation can live. And those are the words of cos to the San Hedron. Now John inserts here, his comments, this is not Kayus talking. This is John. As he is writing his book of what just happened. Here's his commentary on this event, verse 51. Now he, this CAIF did not say on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one, the children of God who are scattered abroad.
Speaker 1 00:15:13 So from that day on, they plan together to kill him. So John pauses and says, listen, if you're reading this book, I want you to understand what just happened. Kayus just made this statement of what, what should happen. The one man should die and the nation that should live, but I want you to understand what just took place. So there's a prophecy of God that just took place. Now kind confess. Isn't a prophet. But the words that he spoke were a prophecy. And then he tells us what the prophecy is. He says, the prophecy is that this one man would die. That's Jesus. By the fact of him dying, he's now gonna gather who's he gonna gather the children of God into one. And he says, that is what we're talking about happening with the death of Jesus Christ, that somehow for us to comprehend the truth, that's gonna occur with the death of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:16:13 He doesn't just die on a cross that death on the cross has great implications and outcomes. His death on the cross means he's gonna gather, start gathering people. He's gonna gather what people, those who believe in him and who are they. They become the children of God. If they become the children of God, where do they go? They go to become one in the body of Christ. Now uses the word here to gather. It's used a variety of ways in the new Testament to actually use of a synagogue. So when the San, he was called to gather, that was a gathering that took place there. It's used the idea. If you go fishing and you put a net out, you then gather a whole bunch of fish and you get fish that way. It's used of Jesus. When he talks about gathering sheep. So you can gather sheep, but it's also used of gathering fruit.
Speaker 1 00:17:10 Now, now Mel really enjoys my wife going, picking fruit. And we do blueberry picking every year. And this year we also added peaches to our picking. And just a couple weeks ago, we went peach picking now peach pickings, a little different than blueberry picking blueberry picking. We went with three of our grandkids and we went for an hour. And that one hour we gathered a total of nine pounds of blueberries. That's pretty good. Isn't it? Well then we went peach picking and in 10 minutes we gathered 20 pounds of peaches. Now understand when you gather peaches, peaches are different than apples. When you gather apples, you just sort of throw 'em in and they can bang against it either. And everything is just fine, but not true of peaches. When you go peach picking you, you're very careful which ones you pick. I mean, you don't want any damage to that peach at all.
Speaker 1 00:18:06 You don't want any bugs on that peach at all. You want no, nothing wrong with that. You want that soft skin to still be there and nothing come out of it or nothing going into it. And when you grab that peach, you don't throw it into you gently. You gently take that peach and set it down into your bug. You know why you do that? Don't you, you do not wanna bruise a peach. You can bruise a peach real easy. You don't bruise apples, bang an apple together. It's just fine. You bang peaches together. They're not good. You're very gentle, very gentle and caring for how you take that peach and put it down into that bucket. This is a word that Jesus is using for his relationship to us.
Speaker 1 00:18:48 There's a very caring relationship that he wants. He's in pluck us. He gathers us. He reaches out and embraces us. He reaches out and cares for us when Jesus thinks of his death. When you think of his death, there's this relational component to it of his great love is Greg care is great concern that he is reaching out to embrace each and every one of us. And to pull us in not to be forgotten now, somehow, somehow sneaking in no, no, no. Where he intentionally reaches out and embraces each one of us and pulls us in and gathers us to himself.
Speaker 1 00:19:35 That love is so great. They not just gathers us. He then all of a sudden turns to us and says, you're a child of God. And he changes who we are. Oh, we've been walking into the domain of darkness before and now we're transferred in the kingdom of God's dear son. And we were children of God. And he said, now you make you children of God and you are part of this family, but that's not all, he not only gathers us a children. Like we're just sort of here there. No, no, no. He says, then I pull you in and make you one. And the body of Christ folks. These are great truths, great truths for us to know, to appreciate to grasp of what God has done for us. So the death of Jesus Christ were gathered, were gathered in through death of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:20:35 We are made children of God through the death of Jesus Christ. We're made one as the body of Christ. And we get to experience that in what the one local, all that with the death of Christ, all that's being said by the prophecy of CAIF in the Sanhedrin. What's gonna take place when they kill this one, man, Jesus, John says, here's all that's gonna take place. It'll gather the children of God into one. So we've got the Jews. We've got the Sanhedrin, the chief priest and Pharisees, therefore, Jesus, what does he do during this time? Look what happens next? They're making their plan together. They're gonna kill Jesus. And here's Jesus verse 54, Jesus. Therefore no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews. He went away from there to a country near the wilderness, into a city called Efrim and there he stayed with his disciples, just one verse on Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:21:43 But it identifies after he raised, uh, lashers from the grave after they believed and they went off and told the Pharisees and the chief priest, Jesus withdrew from all those people and publicly found himself in a small town, away from everybody no longer in public view. And he goes to a town called Efrim and Efrim rings a bell for Jewish people. It's not just the name of a town. It's the name of the son of Joseph Joseph who found himself in Israel, taken from the nation to Egypt, where he sold by his brothers into slavery while he's there. He prospers as he prospers. Joseph has two sons. One is Vanessa and the other one is Efrim when he names his son Efrim this is out of Genesis 41 52. It says this, the name of the second one. He called Efrim for God has made fruitful in the land of may affliction.
Speaker 1 00:22:51 Think about it. Joe's saying when he was troubled afflicted, all there, he found fruitfulness. Jesus goes to this town where reminded of that freedom. Why? Because Jesus is gonna be fruitful in his time of affliction, which is his death. And that fruitfulness is he's gonna gather together the children of God and make him one. But there's more of a feel of Joseph in this than that. Joseph, towards the end of his life, he's been in Egypt for a long time. His family come back to him. His brothers are wrestling as well. All that they did to him. And Joseph says this about his life Genesis 50 verse 20. As for you speaking to his brothers, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about that. Many people should be kept alive as they are today. Joseph takes his affliction and identifies for his brother.
Speaker 1 00:23:56 He kept a whole nation alive Jesus by his death. And his affliction will raise up in a sense, a whole new nation of people who are alive in Jesus Christ. And he goes to the small town of Riam where hear the echoes of Joseph's life through it. And he waits and he waits why they're planning to kill him. They will not kill him because Jesus's hour had not yet come. Jesus will give up his life for us. They will not take it. He will sacrifice himself in his hour. Not because they want to kill him, but he's here to give his life that he can gather the children of God into one. So we've got the Jews, we've got the chief priest in the Pharisees. We've got Jesus. And we hear what they do now. What happens next? Is everything getting ready for that final week, weekend life of Jesus, that final death and resurrection.
Speaker 1 00:25:03 How do we move towards that? And here's what we read our final us verse 54, I'm sorry, 55. Now the Passover, the Jews was at hand and many went to Jerusalem out of the, out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. So the Passover was gonna come, but the practice was, you came early, made some sacrifice and everything got yourself, purified that you could celebrate the Passover. So they're coming out of the country, the, the small towns communities all around, they're traveling Jerusalem and they're getting in Jerusalem to make those sacrifices. They're gonna be at the temple. Here's what they say. Verse 56. Therefore the Jews were seeking for Jesus. And we're saying to one another, as they stood in the temple, what do you think? Do you think that he will not come this year to the feast at all? So here's been the practice every year.
Speaker 1 00:25:51 They've heard Jesus came to the temple. Every year he came, it was during Passover. He's done it every year for the last couple years. Well, they expect him to do it again this year. You can imagine them. A text went out to everybody. Hey, Jesus is coming to temple and everybody's buzzing. They're just waiting for him. They're just waiting for him, just waiting for him. But they haven't seen him yet. And they are waiting to see if he's gonna come. That's what the people are doing while Jesus and Neri getting ready for the triumph entry. They're all in a buzz about what he's going to do next. Here's the chief priest in Pharisees verse 57. Now the chief priest in the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, that they might seize him. What's their plan. Well, if anybody sees Jesus around Jerusalem, you come and tell us, we'll make sure we go seize him in order to what that we may kill him.
Speaker 1 00:26:45 And the plan is all set for the nation of Israel to get ready for the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. At John's whole point. This whole point, following the resurrection of Lazaruth is this, that Jesus that Jesus died. And in his death, he's gathering together the children of God to be one. Now we find ourselves today in this situation, as we contemplate this, that we're all in a variety of places. When they come to our relationship to Jesus Christ, we've all met some people who are like the chief priest and Pharisees. And when all of a sudden, when they hear of Jesus Christ, they become angered by who he is. Somehow you would think they respond in a different way because of his grace, for his love, for his death, for the good things he had done. But somehow they're angered by what he does.
Speaker 1 00:27:44 You may have had friends like this may have family members like this. Maybe when you came to Christ, people responded this way, but we all know of people who are angered. When somehow when they hear the gospel, they do not embrace it. They're actually angered by it. And we need to know that's exactly what happened in Jesus' day. People got angered by what he did, not everybody embraced him. He actually angered people by what he came and brought forth in the good news of Jesus Christ, that gospel we talk about. And so in the world we live in, we need to know we're gonna come across. People who are angered, actually angered by the gospel of Jesus Christ and who he is. But we also need to know there's people who are confused. They're just like those Jewish people who hear things. They wonder things.
Speaker 1 00:28:30 Let me be a friend of yours, me, somebody they've watched your life change a little bit. They're like, I'm confused. What's going on here. You're not like you used to be. You're not in behaving like you, what what's going. And they're confused by what's going on. And you can tell 'em about Christ. They can read the Bible, but they're confused. They don't bring understanding to it completely. And they may go talk to their pastor or some religious leader, but they need some answers to what's going on. And you may be one of those people. You can be here today. And it's like, you're here because a family member brought you, a friend came along and said, you should visit your, and in your mind, you don't know where you stand with Christ, but you're just sort of confused. Why do these people come together every week like this?
Speaker 1 00:29:09 And you're really sitting there and you know, I've got questions that need to be answered. And just like the slide says, text a question, we'll answer the questions, pastor Michael, answer question for you at any time, but we need confused. And also we need to answer questions and you be one of those people. And if you're confused, you need questions answered. And we're here for that. But just know that is a response that many people have. They're confused by what happens with the life of Christ and what he really can do for them, what he's done in lives of other people. And that confusion is since they need answers to the questions, but there's the final group of people who believe. And that group of people who believe all of a sudden are, are introduced to these wonderful concepts. And there's wonderful theology of who Christ is that he's one who gathers us as children of God to be one.
Speaker 1 00:30:10 You know, I think for many of us, that's not a truth we ever deny, but I sometimes wonder if we really let that truth seep seep from our minds into our souls, that our souls really embrace the truthfulness of being gathered by the Lord. Jesus Christ. I think we're all aware of why we are unworthy. I think if we told people how we really feel about ourselves, we think people think about us. We know why they would reject us. We know why we're not loved. We know things that we've done. We know things we're ashamed of. We know shame we have because of things done to us. And for some reason, we sense that we are not worthy of the love of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we do not embrace. We do not appreciate, we do not understand. We do not take time to let it seep into our soul. Oh, we agree to it folks. But somehow for us to take that truth and let it seep down into our souls, that Jesus Christ truly loves you. They really cares for that. He died for you and he gathers. You gathers you to himself, that he embraces you, that he loves you
Speaker 1 00:31:46 To go from our minds to our souls, that he truly loves. Gathers, brings us in individually for who we are and what he's done for us. And they wants us in his family and he brings us in and then makes us not just there. He makes us children of God, this whole new relationship we have with God that we call him ABA father. And we have this relationship with God, the father we'd never had before, because the love of the Lord, Jesus Christ gathering us into him. And then, and then to make us one with fellow believers that there's others like us, who've been loved by Christ who become children of God, who now embraced as well. And we are now one with them and they're just as broken as we are. They struggle just like we do with being loved. They're just like me who Christ has gathered and loved, made children of God. And now made us one. And for us, for us to allow that to seep into our souls, brothers and sisters, to embrace the love of Christ for you to embrace that you're a child of God to embrace that. You're one with fellow believers, that all of that through the death of Christ. And to think that was prophesied by the high priest CA where John interpreted for us of what it all means.
Speaker 1 00:33:36 You may be here today and you're listening to this and he'd say, that's the Jesus. I've never heard about that. I need to know. And you need to trust in him today. Oh, if you hear that, you know, that means you're a sinner that Christ has died on the crossroad end. You've been raised. He was raised on a third day. You need to believe that's what John said. Believe 110 times. He said, believe, just believe. Believe that Jesus is a Christ. The son of God. And by believing you will have eternal life. It just seems this morning that you know, with this truth. And I talk about let it seep into your souls, that we're gonna take some time to just allow you to reflect, to, to, to walk through and think, think about Christ, embracing and gathering you in. Think about Christ, making you a child of God. Think about him making you one with others. And then after you do that, then give thanks just some time of thank you, Lord, for what you've done for me on the cross, on the cross that you died. So we're gonna go to this time of reflection and Thanksgiving. And, uh, so you can bow your heads and close your eyes, reflect on those truths that Jesus Christ died to gather the children of God into one. And then you can give thanks.
