FBCWest 580 | Expedient for One Man to Die
Recorded On: 11/12/2023
Bulletin
Hymn # 462 ”Love Lifted Me”
SCRIPTURE READING – Romans 8:37 - 39
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“House of the Lord”
“Echo Holy”
“Raise a Hallelujah”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Expedient for One Man to Die”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“God You Are”
Benediction “There Is Freedom”
Sermon Notes
John 11:47 & 48 Priests and Pharisees convene a Council about Jesus because they were concerned about their place
John 11:49 & 50 Caiaphas the High Priest states it is expedient for one man to die
John 11:51 – 53 An explanation of the statement
John 11:54 – 57 Jesus stays out of Jerusalem until Passover
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Please turn to the Gospel of John chapter 11 and we're going to start with verse 47.
Now the context of this is that Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead who had been in the tomb for four days. And there were those who as a result of that sign, that miracle, came to faith in Jesus. But there were others who went back to Jerusalem to tattletale on him and say this is what he did. And so the Jewish leaders decided to have a business meeting.
And in that business meeting you don't see a prayer meeting, you see a business meeting. And in that business meeting they say, "What are we going to do about this guy? Because we're having problems and we're going to see how they conducted that business meeting."
And so we see here in chapter 11 verse 46 it says this. Or 47, I'm sorry. "Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council and were saying, What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs."
Now again, they received word of what's happening and decided like I said to have a business meeting to convene a council to determine what they ought to do.
Now it's interesting that they say because this man is performing many signs.
It's not, "Well are these signs true? What does these signs tell us about him?" It's just something we've got this man and everything we've done thus far, threatening him, threatening his disciples, trying to stone him and all these things seem not to be working.
So they said, "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 you notice what they should have done is in this council convene a prayer meeting and say, "Is God with him? Is God among us? What's happening with these signs?" Let's take a look at these signs, these miracles and compare them to the Scriptures and determine whether or not this man is who he said he is. But instead, they're concerned that their position is going because all men will come to believe him rather than having the religious orthodoxy that's presently happening and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. Notice they're not concerned about truth, they're concerned about power.
He's going to replace our power and then Rome might get involved and take away our position and maybe even our nation, which is interesting because everybody has been crying out for the Messiah, the Christ, the one that would lead them. But you would think, "Well, if this guy is the Christ, the one who's going to lead us, he will be able to defeat the Romans and so we're good." But know, again, very few things change throughout history because we're all men and women subject to the same desires and those types of things. So again, instead of being concerned about what's happening, they're concerned about their position and their power and their nation.
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all." And so Caiaphas, because he is the high priest, is like the president of the council. He is significant. He's the one, during the Day of Atonement, is to go into the Holy of Holies and make an offering for himself and the nation. And so that's his role and he's considered, if you will, the most spiritual. However, during this period of time, you didn't get the position because it was determined by the way God had set it up. He got the position and maintained it through bribery.
So it's not as if he's significantly holy or religious.
And so he says, "You don't know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is an expedient for you that one man die for the people and that the whole nation not perish." So he makes and says, "Look, you are so worried about the situation.
The answer simply is this, is that you get rid of one man and your problems will go away. Get rid of that one man." And so he says, "If we do that, the nation will not perish."
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 and not for the nation only, but in order that he might also gather together into one, the children of God who are scattered abroad. So notice this, the Caiaphas, even though he's not as holy or religious as we might suppose because of his position, God uses anyway. He prophesies it is amazing that God is so powerful, so sovereign that he can even use a non-believer to accomplish his purpose.
For those of you in my room, Pharaoh was simply one of those people. God can use even unbelievers to declare his glory. And so he has Caiaphas prophesied, which is interesting because Caiaphas is simply saying the very same thing that Jesus has been saying all the way back, if you will, to his meeting with Nicodemus.
The scripture that the whole world seems to know, John 3 16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Just the verse before that says that he is to be placed up just like the fiery serpent was that all who believed in him would not perish. And so Jesus very, very, very early on in his ministry said, "I came in my life for you." So Caiaphas, although he doesn't believe in what Jesus is saying, and his view is that if we kill one man, we don't have to worry about our position of power or Romans, but it's better if he die than we lose our position. And Jesus is saying, "It is better that I die so that all of you might be saved."
And not only the Jew, but all those who are scattered about, and as he preached about the flocks and the sheep and the other flocks and the other sheep, Jesus is saying, "I am giving my life not only for the Jew, but for the entire world."
And so he meant it by saying, "Well, we'll be okay in our nation if we kill Jesus." And God is saying, "You will be okay because you will find salvation in one man."
But nobody gets the prophecy, because they weren't there to determine what God was doing.
They were there to get rid of their problems.
So from that day on, they planned together to kill him.
Again, if he is the Son of God, and he was and he is, then you should let him do his ministry so that he might...
If he is not the Son of God, then it will eventually be born witness to, and it will be taken care of. But they again, so concerned about the situation, they never take a look. I mean, let's take a look at what Jesus had done.
For some people didn't know it, but he turned water into wine.
Other people didn't know that he walked on water, that he stilled the sea and stopped the wind. Then others saw that he fed 4,000 men and 5,000 men, besides the women and children. He healed the blind and the lame and the deaf.
He healed people either in their presence or out of his presence. He raised a little girl from death, who was 12 years old, and the woman who was tagging along, who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years, thought to simply touch the hem of his garment, to be healed, was healed.
He just recently healed, not healed, he rose Lazarus from the dead.
Maybe you ought to take a look at those signs and again, take a look at what the Scriptures say about that.
But they don't.
They simply plan to kill him.
Which brings up what Jesus had asked, if you will, when they picked up stones to stone him for blasphemy. He said, "For which good work do you stone?" And now the problem is, because he rose a man from the dead, and everybody was talking about him, he had to be dealt with.
Therefore, Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but he went away from these to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there he stayed with his disciples. So Jesus removed himself from that situation, not because Jesus was fearful of that situation, because that was the reason Jesus came, to give his life a ransom for many.
But he did so because it wasn't quite yet God's time.
God's time was the ultimate time of Passover, when the lambs were being slaughtered as an offering for their sin. And so Jesus was doing that to prevent God's timing from being altered.
And so it says, "Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves." And again, the Jewish law was that if you were a male over 21, and if at all possible you were to go to Jerusalem three times a year and pass over with one of them. And therefore, Jerusalem was extremely crowded, because there are people who not only lived in Jerusalem there, but people from the surrounding communities, and even in Greece and other places of the dysphora, coming to Jerusalem to honor and to follow the commitment that they were to be there at Passover.
So they were seeking for Jesus, because they're saying, "Well, he's a male over the age of 21. The law requires him to be here, so now our trap is set.
He's going to be here, because he's required to be, and we can, so they're going, "Where is he?" And they were saying to one another, as they stood in the temple, "What do you think, that he will not come to the feast at all?" So they're saying, "Why is it, maybe that he won't come?
Is it that he's heard about our plan?" And the reason he withdrew from Jerusalem at that time, because he knew about their plans, he didn't need to hear about it. And so they're wondering, "Okay, is our trap now set? Is he not going to show up?"
Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he was reported to him so that they might seize him.
Again, they don't care who he was. They don't care about the signs and the wonders. They simply wanted to seize him and kill him.
A man that even the world today says was a good teacher, a man who taught about love and all these other things, a person that people say, "Oh, we ought to follow his example." Well, his example was, "I'm the son of God, believe in me and you will have life."
They don't like that part, but they want to say, "He was an innocent man, but he got caught up in the history of the world and got crushed by the Jewish authorities and by Rome." And the answer is, "No, it was God's plan."
world. I don't like to talk about politics and I'm not going to now because I believe that if you mix politics with the law, you get politics. If you mix politics with medicine, you get politics.
If you get mixed politics with church or theology, you get politics.
But what I'm about to say, it has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans or some presidential candidate or some whatever. I'm not referring to that at all, so don't think I am.
I also know, as I believe it was, Winston Churchill who said, "Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it." Unfortunately, those who do know history because they're with a bunch of people who don't know
Mea Copa is Latin for "my fault."
I'm sorry, it's "my fault." He gave this speech in 1947 and there were those who didn't want to accept that Mea Copa because he initially was part of the problem before he was himself arrested for being the problem.
I'm going to warn you again before you think what I'm going to say, don't.
In this speech came out a prose like a poem that is displayed in many Holocaust museums and other places. That poem said this.
You can read my point Bunker-D because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Now you may think of this why I won't tell you you're wrong. You may be thinking the purpose of my 1B speech is to say because of current events we are to speak out. I'm not telling you to do that. I expect you to. I expect you to speak out against evil in all of its forms. Whether it's on our side or another side, we speak the glory of God and we fight against evil. What I'm here to tell you in my sermon 1B is not to speak out, but we believers are next. There isn't when they when they come for this maybe we should speak out and when they come for those people maybe we should speak out. No, no, we're next. And so the question we need to do now is so strengthen our faith that no matter what they do to come out against us it will not diminish our faith in Him who saved them. The Scriptures tell us Jesus specifically says a disciple is not above his master. I'm sorry a disciple is not above his
Rabbi, his teacher and a slave is not above his master. If they treat me this way they will so treat you. Now Jesus was a sinless man who performed wonders and miracles. I'm a sinful man who doesn't perform miracles or wonders. I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I can see the sign of our time. Some,
and hopefully they're right, some will say well we don't need to worry because the rapture will all gather us up. Well between then and now there are people who are gonna lose their head, literal. And if those who believe the rapture happens before the tribulation, if you read Revelation there are believers during Revelation that in fact lose their head. So we as believers need to strengthen our faith and to be witnesses so that when those people who aren't believers see the signs of the time they might understand and also come to faith. One of the sad things about life, we have a couple who are getting married next week, technically this week. A lot of times people are looking forward to it saying well I know Jesus is supposed to come but I want to get married first and I want to have children and I want to get and they have all their dreams and aspirations and those are great and wonderful. Now I didn't necessarily as a young person dream about getting married but I'm thankful I did and those types of things and one of the best things ever happened however one of the downsides of wanting to have having children and grandchildren is that I've lived 71 years. They come after me I've lived a full life. They take off my head a lot of people haven't had my head on my shoulder for a long time anyway. But I don't want to see my children and grandchildren. So it might have been easier for me if Jesus is coming or not coming but Tribulation comes soon and not be at risk of being or having the temptation of saying here's one of your grandchildren you can deny your faith and save his head or keep your faith and let him lose his and the worst thing for an American is to make somebody else pay for their beliefs and I hope and I pray and two of my grandchildren here and one of my children if that day happened
during our life and I am put in that position I want you to know from the bottom of my heart I love you more than my life I love him more and so speak out against evil but I pray that we strengthen our faith because it's going to come at times when we don't wait for the next group we are in and I see it
leaders I see it in other religions I see it in no religion that just as these people who claim to be spiritual leaders they didn't care about the fact that Jesus was the son of God are not going to care about the fact that we are children the matter of fact just as they hated him they will hate us
that's a glorious thing the song that we sang in a million angels will fall down on the floor and worship because he sold it's going to come a time not just the angels will be there but all of us who redeemed we will sing a song about the redemption and it will be glorious and he will not leave us or he will not leave us and just as I may have to one day say he's more important he may say to me my glory is more important than your life and that is true and that if by losing my life it may glorify him even so Lord come quickly if I living my life it's for glorifying him amen to that as well and I hope one that's what I pray because help us say I want him to come pretty quick but if he doesn't come quickly I hope to be able to see my grandchildren like I saw this morning singing praises to me worshiping him and being stronger in the faith than me and to being a better believer than me so this was a heavy topic it's much more fun to say hey and even go on TV later this morning and you can there'll be a number of pastors we'll talk about how rich you're going to be and how your dreams are going to come true and how wonderful this life is going to be and I've praised God and hope that happens for you but that doesn't mean that God loved you any more than the person who is struggling and doesn't know where God is because he loves with an everlasting love and just as I read at the beginning and nothing and separate us from that love even tribulation and all God's people say