John 11:47-57 - Our Sacred Places

Don't miss salvation because you're clinging to the 'places' you have.

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Gospels: Week 10 — Jerusalem, commandment, service, and Supper

CONTEXT: Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, an action which was immediately reported to the religious establishment.

John 11:47–57 (NASB95)

⁴⁷ Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, ⁵⁰ nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” ⁵¹ Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

⁵³ So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. ⁵⁴ Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.

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. ⁵⁶ So they were seeking for Jesus, and 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?”

⁵⁷ Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him.

Canons of Dordt

Point II, .Article 9: The Fulfillment of God’s Plan

This plan, arising out of God’s eternal love for his chosen ones, from the beginning of the world to the present time has been powerfully carried out and will also be carried out in the future, the gates of hell seeking vainly to prevail against it.

As a result the chosen are gathered into one, all in their own time, and there is always a church of believers founded on Christ’s blood, a church which steadfastly loves, persistently worships, and—here and in all eternity—praises him as her Savior who laid down his life for her on the cross, as a bridegroom for his bride.

Summary

The first word of today's passage - therefore - is one of language's most powerful words, bridging the gap between cause and effect. The raising of Lazarus was Jesus' penultimate miracle - or sign as John refers to them (it wasn't His ultimate miracle, of course; that honor clearly belongs to His own resurrection). But It's not hard to understand how quickly word spread of Jesus commanding a four-day-dead man to walk unaided out of a tomb, resulting in a massive therefore moment for everyone: for some, the effect of this most amazing cause would be to have their belief in Jesus solidified, but for others, the effect was to have their hearts hardened all the more.

Those in the Jewish religious establishment found themselves squarely in that second camp. Their hardened hearts finally gave their otherwise fiercely opposed parties - the minority Pharisees and the majority chief priests (the Sadducees) - some common ground: from that day on, they planned together to kill Jesus.

Their logic was plain to see: 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. By place they weren't referring to their homes, the temple, or any other physical location, they were referring to their elevated places of status and authority. Ironically, it was because they valued their places so much that they ended up losing both their place and their nation to the Romans approximately three and a half decades after they had Jesus crucified.

All of us have a place of our own that we long to cling to rather than surrender it to Christ. What sort of place are you stubbornly trying to hang onto for yourself? And what sort of therefore is this resulting in for you?

  Dig Deeper  

Commentator Robert Mounce has an interesting take on Caiaphas:

Caiaphas’ cynical solution to the problem of Jesus, the worker of miracles, was pure utilitarianism—“You don’t seem to grasp the fact that it is in our interest that one man die rather than the entire nation be destroyed." In other words, the welfare of Israel rested on their willingness to do what is necessary to preserve it—i.e., to put this man Jesus to death. The power of the human mind to rationalize a course of action, no matter how devious, is marvelous to behold. Better to kill a single person than to let an entire nation perish. Sounds reasonable, but it makes the fatal mistake of disregarding the rights of the individual. All socialist doctrine fails at its basic premise—i.e., that the good of the masses is to be preferred over the good of the individual. History has shown the vacuity of this deceptive doctrine. It is only when the rights of the individual are protected that the welfare of the group is enhanced.

Caiaphas' 'prophecy' would indeed come true: one man would indeed die for the people. But Jesus' death wasn't political in nature, the way Caiaphas had envisioned it. Rather, Jesus died to redeem God's people by atoning for our sin so that we would become, as Peter would go on to describe it, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession...

The establishment sought to kill Jesus to protect their own sacred turf. But God, in His immense sovereignty, used their sinful logic for your salvation, so that, as Peter's proclamation ends, you may proclaim His excellencies.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who "powerfully carries out His will... the gates of Hell seeking vainly to prevail against it."

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would surrender all of the places in your life to the Lordship of Christ;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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