Introduction:
God@Work Results In 3 Different Reactions (John 11:45-57):
- Those that Obey Jesus. (John 11:45)
(Luke 9:35) - And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!"
See: Acts 2:38 | Acts 3:19 | Acts 17:30 | Romans 1:5
- Those that Oppose Jesus (John 11:46-54).
Isaiah 53:6 - ...the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- Those that Observe Jesus (John 11:55-57).
Luke 11:23 - Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-00:51
John chapter 11, this is going to be our last message in John for a while.
00:52-00:56
And it is an extremely appropriate place to stop.
00:57-01:00
We'll see why as we go through God's Word together.
01:01-01:14
As you're turning there, a couple of years ago, we were having our immediate family's Christmas and the boys were opening their presents and Cade got this box.
01:14-01:19
He's in Harvest Kids today, so you're going to have to get on his case about this later.
01:19-01:24
But he opened up this box and it was a laptop computer.
01:24-01:26
It was his big gift of the year.
01:27-01:28
And this was his reaction.
01:29-01:34
He took the paper off and he goes, "A laptop computer." And set it aside.
01:35-01:48
I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" I said, "There's actually a computer in that box!" He goes, "Oh, okay." And Aaron and I looked at each other from across the room like that was not the reaction that we were expecting.
01:48-01:53
So fast forward about, I don't know, five or seven minutes.
01:54-01:59
He's opening up another present, It was a big bag of Sour Patch Kids.
01:59-02:01
He lost his mind!
02:02-02:03
Sour Patch Kids!
02:03-02:06
He ran over and jumped on Aaron and gave her a hug.
02:06-02:08
I love you guys!
02:08-02:11
Then he ran across to the other end of the living room and jumped on me.
02:11-02:14
He goes, thank you, you guys are the best parents ever!
02:14-02:21
And I looked at Aaron again and we thought, that's not the reaction that we were expecting.
02:22-02:23
Aaron and I talked afterwards.
02:24-02:26
We could have saved a lot of money that Christmas.
02:27-02:31
Not the reaction we were expecting.
02:32-02:38
And as we're in John chapter 11, Jesus just performed his greatest public miracle.
02:39-02:40
Remember the story?
02:41-02:53
Here's a man dead, buried in the tomb, stone rolled over, four days in the tomb, Jesus shows up, move the stone, Lazarus, come forth!
02:53-02:58
And the dead man comes walking out of the grave.
02:59-03:04
So my question, church, is what kind of a reaction would you expect from that?
03:05-03:06
I mean, just think about it.
03:06-03:16
Think of a funeral that you attended where the person was laying there dead, and imagine some person walks in and says, "Hey, get up." And the dead person gets up.
03:16-03:18
I mean, what kind of a reaction would you expect?
03:19-03:22
I would expect mass revival.
03:23-03:28
Everybody on their knees, on their face, "I can't believe what I just saw!
03:28-03:35
Here is a man who can reverse man's greatest problem, which is death!" Well, some people believed.
03:36-03:37
Which isn't surprising.
03:37-03:43
But what is surprising is the reaction that some people had to the resurrection of Lazarus.
03:44-03:46
The reaction to Jesus.
03:46-03:49
There are some people that said, "He resurrected a man?
03:50-03:53
Well, then we have to kill him." But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
03:53-03:57
We're going to see this in the passage today, just very simply on your outline.
03:58-04:01
This is the aftermath of Lazarus' resurrection.
04:02-04:03
I've got this down on your outline today.
04:03-04:06
God at work results in three different reactions.
04:07-04:08
This is just the way it is.
04:08-04:12
When God is at work, there are three different reactions that take place.
04:12-04:16
And the first one is number one, those that obey Jesus.
04:16-04:19
There are those that obey Jesus.
04:20-04:22
Look at verse 45, John chapter 11.
04:22-04:30
It says, "Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him." Stop there.
04:30-04:37
These were the Jews that were at the funeral and they were also there at what I think we can call the reverse funeral.
04:38-04:43
They saw Jesus' miracle and they came to believe in who He is.
04:43-04:51
And I would say that after watching Lazarus resurrect from the dead, believing in Jesus just seems like a logical response, right?
04:52-04:56
I mean, the appropriate response, the emotional response.
04:56-05:11
But I want to remind you today, whether you're sitting here, you're watching this online, you're watching the recording later or whatever, I need to remind you that believing in Jesus Christ, receiving Jesus Christ, repenting from your sin, all the same event.
05:12-05:18
Believing in Jesus is a command, and commands are meant to be obeyed.
05:18-05:28
Here's what I mean. Oftentimes when we preach, or when we evangelize, or when we witness, or whatever you want to refer to that, we talk about sharing our faith, right?
05:29-05:31
That's how we describe it, we're sharing our faith.
05:31-05:34
And it is sharing our faith.
05:34-05:43
But you know something we don't often talk about is the truth that the gospel of Jesus Christ commands people to believe.
05:44-05:46
In other words, the gospel is not just sharing something.
05:47-05:55
If you really take a hard look at your Bible, proclaiming the gospel is reiterating a command from God.
05:55-05:56
You understand that?
05:57-06:01
The gospel is not just, "Hey, I have this suggestion for you.
06:02-06:06
If your thing's not working, why don't you give Jesus a try?
06:07-06:08
That's not the gospel.
06:09-06:12
The gospel is at its very base, it's a command.
06:13-06:16
You are lost in your sin and you are commanded to believe.
06:17-06:22
You're like, "Jeff, can you back that up?" Well, here's a few verses. Let's look at Luke 9.35.
06:23-06:24
It'll be on the screen here for you.
06:24-06:28
This is the Lord speaking at the transfiguration of Jesus Christ.
06:28-06:35
It says, "And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen One, listen to Him." That's a command.
06:35-06:43
"Hey, listen to what He's saying." Acts 2.38, "Peter said to the crowd..." This is a command.
06:43-06:49
"Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ." Again, turn to page... Acts 3.19.
06:50-06:57
Again, Peter says, "Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out." Believing is a command.
06:58-07:01
Acts 17.30, in case it's still fuzzy for you.
07:02-07:14
It says, "The times of ignorance God overlooked." Meaning the past times, God overlooked that, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.
07:14-07:16
Do you see that? It's a command.
07:17-07:20
God doesn't suggest. He does what?
07:21-07:23
Say it, come on, what does He do?
07:23-07:26
He commands all people.
07:26-07:27
Who? All people!
07:28-07:30
Like, what people? People everywhere!
07:30-07:32
To repent, it's a command.
07:32-07:38
In Romans 1-5, Paul talks about the obedience of faith.
07:38-07:40
I could go on and on, but we're going to stop there.
07:41-07:46
I just want to remind us that believing in Jesus Christ is a command to be obeyed.
07:46-07:47
It's a command.
07:48-07:59
If you need to think of the gospel not as God saying, "Hey, I have a suggestion for you, possibly would you please consider?" You need to think of the gospel as God speaking this way.
08:00-08:06
God is saying, "Hey, the path that you are on is dishonoring me, and it is destroying you.
08:07-08:10
I made a new path for you by the blood of my Son.
08:11-08:13
Get on the path." That's the gospel.
08:14-08:17
So church, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you.
08:18-08:24
Believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin, for the promise of eternal life.
08:24-08:31
And there were people in this crowd when Jesus resurrected Lazarus, there were people totally on board with that, but not everyone.
08:31-08:33
There were those that obeyed Jesus.
08:33-08:35
Let's look at the second group here.
08:35-08:37
There are those that opposed Jesus.
08:38-08:39
Look at verse 46.
08:39-08:44
It says, "But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
08:44-08:51
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, 'What are we to do, for this man performs many signs?
08:51-08:58
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.
08:58-08:59
Let's stop there.
08:59-09:11
Some people, according to this, wrap your brain around this with me because it's hard, some people watched Lazarus walk out of his tomb, and their reaction was they ran to the Pharisees to tell them. Why?
09:14-09:15
Help me out, young people.
09:15-09:23
What's the term for people that get on social media and make a comment just for the sake of igniting people, getting people fired up.
09:23-09:24
What's that called?
09:25-09:25
Trolling?
09:26-09:26
Okay.
09:27-09:29
First century trolls right here.
09:30-09:30
That's what they were doing.
09:31-09:31
They were trolling.
09:32-09:36
And I've got to be honest with you, I have a hard time conceptualizing this.
09:37-09:41
They watched a man walk out of the tomb, and they said, "You know what we should do?
09:41-09:50
We should tell the Pharisees because they are going to be so ticked off when they hear about this." But that's exactly what happened.
09:50-09:52
They knew. They knew!
09:53-09:55
The Pharisees were going to be livid.
09:56-09:59
And what was their reaction when they went to the Pharisees?
10:00-10:04
Were the Pharisees impressed that we found a man who knows how to resurrect the dead? No.
10:05-10:07
The miracle itself meant nothing to them.
10:07-10:10
Do you see that? They said, "Hey, we've got to call a meeting.
10:10-10:15
Let's get to council together. Emergency meeting." Like, well, who was meeting?
10:15-10:19
Well, this was sort of, you could call it Israel's Supreme Court.
10:19-10:26
And what they did was they came up with what one person called a plausible disguise.
10:27-10:31
They had this meeting and they're like, "Okay, here's the thing, guys.
10:32-10:42
Word gets out about this, the Romans are going to crush us." Now, they weren't really concerned about political matters at all.
10:42-10:47
Now this might be a hard concept for us to grasp, but I want us to try.
10:47-10:54
What they did here, again you're going to have a hard time conceptualizing this, so don't tune out.
10:55-11:04
What they did here was invent an imaginary crisis in order to get everyone on board with their insane plan.
11:04-11:08
I know, right? I mean, have you ever seen such a thing in your life?
11:09-11:11
I'm going to take another run at that here.
11:12-11:23
Because there's a couple people that are like, "What's going on?" They invented an imaginary crisis to get everyone on board with their insane plan to eliminate Jesus.
11:25-11:29
Because they can't just be like, "We're sick of Jesus, kill Him." They have to have some reason.
11:30-11:35
Like, "Oh, if the Romans find out about this, they're going to come and they're going to..." Really?
11:35-11:40
You know, that's an interesting line of thinking, because Jesus wasn't some revolutionary.
11:40-11:42
Jesus had no army.
11:42-11:43
Jesus never killed anyone.
11:44-11:48
In fact, He was literally going around doing the exact opposite of killing.
11:49-11:57
And their conclusion to the man who resurrects the dead was, "We've got to get rid of Him." Pick an excuse, any excuse will do.
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By the way, just parenthetically, never underestimate the power of unbelief.
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It's staggering!
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Like, how staggering is it?
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We're going to get there eventually, Lord willing.
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But do you realize when you get to John chapter 10, they made plans to kill Lazarus!
12:18-12:18
Why?
12:19-12:22
Because everybody was believing in Jesus, because Jesus resurrected Lazarus.
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So they're like, "Oh, we're going to kill him too!" That is how disgusting unbelief gets.
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Oh, and by the way, also parenthetically, they were wrong.
12:32-12:40
You know, this false crisis thing they created was dead wrong because killing Jesus didn't protect Israel, did it?
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Forty years later, Jerusalem, the temple, everything destroyed.
12:46-12:47
So, they were wrong.
12:48-12:49
Back to the text, verse 49.
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"But 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.
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He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.
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And not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
13:19-13:20
So enter Caiaphas.
13:20-13:28
He was the son-in-law of Annas, who was the former high priest, and Caiaphas was the current high priest.
13:28-13:34
And in the Old Testament, when you were high priest, you were high priest for life.
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In the New Testament, when you were high priest, you were high priest for money.
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At this point, it was a political position and Rome would give it to whoever had the highest bid.
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Like, why are you telling us this?
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Because that tells you the quality of person you're going to get in that office.
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Are you with me?
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Are you with me?
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Okay.
13:56-14:07
So this high priest, the leader of the religious elite of Israel, comes right out of the gate with a great opening statement.
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Did you see that? He's like, "You know nothing at all." The high priest interjects the Pharisees and basically he goes, "You people are idiots. You don't have a clue what's going on, do you?
14:21-14:32
You're that dumb. You know nothing." He says, verse 50, check this, he says, "It is better for you that one man should die for the people." We're going to talk about that statement in a second.
14:33-14:48
But you have to see that he says, "It is better." Not, "It is right." Not, "It is just." Not, "It is God-honoring." None of those things were a factor for his decision here, for his sales pitch.
14:48-14:52
All he cared about was what was beneficial, what's good for us.
14:53-15:03
What was beneficial for him and for them was to get rid of the one who's threatening them, undermining their rules, distracting their people.
15:05-15:14
So Caiaphas and really the whole court sort of viewed the Jesus situation as, "How does it affect me?" So he gives this sales pitch.
15:15-15:18
And notice, again, try to imagine with me please.
15:19-15:28
to try to conceptualize that He gives His sales pitch for His insane plan under the guise of patriotism.
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Did you see that?
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Either one man dies, or the whole nation dies.
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How much do you love Israel?
15:37-15:38
Would you like to see Israel perish?
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Then don't you think it's better that one man die than our whole nation?
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I thought you loved our country.
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Do you see Him waving the flag of Israel as He's saying this?
15:48-15:53
I have to see how the Word of God points out the statement.
15:53-16:03
He says basically, "If we kill Jesus, Israel can be saved." If we kill Jesus, Israel can be saved, and that is a true statement, but not the way he meant it.
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Right?
16:06-16:15
Caiaphas here actually made a sound doctrinal statement of substitutionary atonement, but he had no idea what he was saying.
16:16-16:18
Some people might call that irony.
16:19-16:21
Boy, that was really ironic the way he said that.
16:21-16:24
Some of us might call it providence.
16:24-16:29
But God somehow in this instance used Caiaphas to prophesy.
16:29-16:48
Caiaphas meant one thing, but God so arranged Caiaphas' very words coming out of his mouth to prophesy, to echo Isaiah 53.6 that says, "The Lord has laid on him, the Messiah, "the iniquity of us all." It's going to be a whole other sermon, but it's not going to be.
16:49-17:04
Just how awesome God's providence is, that He would take the words of a man who intended to kill Jesus for malicious and sinful and selfish reasons, and He would orchestrate the very words to be prophetic.
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It's staggering.
17:07-17:08
Look at v. 53.
17:09-17:11
It says, "So from that day on, they made plans to put Him to death.
17:12-17:38
Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, went from there to the region near the wilderness to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples." So Caiaphas' little sales pitch, his little speech, it worked, because by the end of the next week, they will have, also by God's providence, they will have successfully killed Jesus Christ.
17:39-17:43
But Jesus withdrew because he knew it wasn't God's time yet.
17:44-17:49
It had to happen according to God's calendar, and Jesus said it's not time, so he withdrew for a while.
17:49-17:51
What's our big takeaway here, church?
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Well here it is.
17:52-17:54
Some people just flat out oppose Jesus Christ.
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Today, more than ever.
17:57-17:57
Why?
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Because Jesus is a threat.
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Jesus is a threat to every single person in this room.
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Jesus is a threat to every single person watching this stream.
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Jesus is a threat to every single person that's ever walked on this planet.
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Jesus Christ is not just some ticket to heaven.
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If the Bible is true and we believe it is, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the universe and that is a challenge to every single one of us.
18:25-18:31
Because I can't be Lord of my life and Jesus Christ be Lord of my life at the same time.
18:32-18:34
You know that throne that you have on your heart?
18:35-18:36
It's not a two-seater.
18:36-18:42
Either you're sitting on it or Jesus Christ is sitting on it, but you're not both sitting on it.
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And that's why repentance, believing in Jesus, it means getting off of the throne of your life and allowing Jesus Christ His rightful place as your Lord.
18:54-19:02
Believing means turning from your sin and embracing the life-changing transformation that Jesus Christ offers.
19:03-19:12
But if you love your self-centered ways too much, like the Pharisees, Jesus Christ is just simply a threat that you want rid of.
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So there are those that obey Jesus, and we saw there are those that oppose Jesus.
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Finally today, Jot this down, number three, there are those that observe Jesus.
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Verse 55 says, "Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves." That was just part of the Levitical law.
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Look at this.
19:36-19:58
"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." It says that here's a group of people that were seeking Jesus.
19:59-19:59
Why?
20:00-20:01
Why were they seeking Jesus?
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Because this was the Passover.
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Let's talk for a second about Jesus' Passover track record.
20:07-20:12
The first time we see Jesus at the Passover was John chapter 2.
20:13-20:13
Do you remember what he did?
20:14-20:18
He made a whip and drove out the money changers and the animals.
20:19-20:25
And I'm sure that was all anybody talked about for months or years after that.
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Could you imagine?
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Well, that was the first Passover we have recorded in John.
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Then you get to the next Passover Jesus attends, is in John chapter 6, and that's when Jesus fed the thousands of people with the little boy's lunch.
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So you can imagine, here's a group of people, like, okay, at one Passover he drove out the money change, at another Passover he fed thousands.
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Like, what do you think Jesus is going to do this year?
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Like, how's he going to top what he did last year?
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Is he coming?
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What do you think he's going to do?
20:57-21:01
You see, these people, they weren't obedient, and they weren't opposed.
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They were just observers, right?
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They were just observers.
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And you're like, "Okay, well, where are these people today?" They're in church. They're in church.
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They fill churches everywhere.
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People who personally haven't received Christ, but they're not against Him either.
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Now listen to me, please, closely.
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I'm not talking about the person that's coming to church and really seeking, "And you know what, Jeff, I'm not there yet, but I'm seeking, and I want to know, and I want to grow." I'm not talking about that person.
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I'm talking about the person that warms a seat for years, and has heard the gospel a hundred times, and has been part of worship, and has not personally received Christ, has no intention to personally receive Christ.
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Why do those people go to church? I don't know.
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Maybe it makes them feel better about themselves.
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Maybe it's a habit. Maybe they're under compulsion to go with their family.
22:07-22:11
Their wife wants them to go, their parents make them go. Whatever.
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But I've got to be honest with you, I don't understand the mindset.
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I don't understand how somebody can sit in a church and you can hear what God has done for you in Jesus Christ.
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He spared not His own son.
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You hear the call to respond and you hear what God has done for others.
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We just watched a video of a family from our church that gave incredible testimony to the work of the Lord and you hear it and then you just leave, unmoved, unchanged, indifferent.
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I don't get it.
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I don't get how you can be in the presence of the Almighty and just be...
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You're not in awe of God's power.
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You're not astonished by God's love.
22:56-22:58
You're not amazed by God's grace.
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You're not trembling at God's judgment.
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You're not terrified of God's wrath.
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Nothing just really gets to you.
23:07-23:16
And somehow there are people that leave church with the emotional reaction of somebody who who just watched an infomercial about gutter guards.
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Are you an observer?
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For a lot of people, church is to you what Passover was to this crowd.
23:24-23:27
Meaning it's merely the event that you show up to observe.
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But Jesus Christ has no place in your life.
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He's given no thought.
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He's not your Lord.
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From the time you leave here until the time you return, Jesus Christ has no place in your life.
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And honestly, I think observers can be some of the hardest people to reach.
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Because I can stand up here and say, "You need Jesus Christ in your life!
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He needs to be your Lord and Savior!" I can stand up here and I can say that week after week after week, and you can just sit there and say, "He's not talking to me.
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I'm not against Jesus.
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I'm here, ain't I?" But just being here and watching doesn't take away your sin.
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Just being here and observing what's happening doesn't grant you heaven, Jesus' gift must be received, and He's a Lord to bow down to. So which one are you? Which one are you? There's three groups, right? You either obey the gospel, you're opposed to the gospel, or you just observe the gospel. There's three groups, but you realize, understand, biblically, there's only two categories.
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There's really only two categories. There are people that obey and there are people that don't obey.
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Here's how Jesus said it in Luke 11, 23.
24:40-24:50
He said, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." So opposing Jesus Christ and observing Jesus Christ really are the same category.
24:51-25:04
You can reject with animosity, or you can reject with complete indifference, but it's still rejecting either way, because Jesus Christ is Savior and He is Lord at the same time.
25:05-25:07
He always was and He always will be.
25:08-25:09
Do you believe that?
25:10-25:11
Do you know Him?
25:11-25:12
Let's pray.
25:12-25:26
Father in heaven, Father in heaven, we're astounded as we come to Your Word and see that people watched You resurrect a dead man and still not everybody fell on their face to worship You.
25:27-25:34
Father, we know that same phenomenon is taking place in churches everywhere, every week.
25:34-25:38
Father, opening our spiritual eyes, that's a work that your Holy Spirit has to do, Father.
25:39-25:41
I can't do it, our worship team can't do it.
25:41-25:45
Father, only You can open a person's eyes.
25:46-25:50
So Father, I pray this morning that You would open some eyes.
25:50-25:53
That we would see Jesus Christ for who He is.
25:54-25:56
Not just some ancient teacher.
25:57-26:01
Not some moral, religious guy to follow.
26:02-26:07
He is Lord of all who is still in the business of resurrecting people.
26:08-26:23
Father, I pray for those who have opposed the Gospel, and I pray, Father, for the countless people who just observe that Your Holy Spirit would wrestle them to the ground and bring them to that place of repentance.
26:24-26:36
Father, we thank You for the power of Your Word and Spirit, both of which are so powerfully and actively working together Even right now, we glorify Your name through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
26:37-26:38
Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 11:45-57
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain how believing in Jesus is an act of obedience.
Why do people see Jesus as a threat? In what way is Jesus a “threat” to a person? Explain how that keeps people from believing.
If someone does not truly believe in and follow Jesus, why would that person continue to attend church?
Breakout
Pray for one another.