This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We are in day five.
Today, I have our look through John chapter 11.

We're going to be looking at verses 45 to 57, which are in many ways a transition
between the first part of the book of John and the entire last part of the book
of John. The first part of the book of John, chapters one to 11, are all about
Jesus' public ministry. But as we turn to chapter 12 next week, we're going to be
turning the page to this second part of the book, the last week of Jesus' life.

And the rest of the book of John is going to be about this last week, the arrest of
Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, the triumphal entry, what happened in the
upper room, all that happened in that last week. We're going to bridge towards that
last week in the responses that you see at the end of chapter 11. Jesus does
this incredible miracle, raising up a man from the dead.

And in the responses, the miracles are growing greater and greater, and the
responses are growing stronger and stronger. Let's just walk through these
verses and then talk about how this is a transition from the first part of John
to the second part of John. Walking through the verses, you see in verse 45 the
response of faith.

John 11, 45 says, "Therefore, many of the Jews "who had come to visit Mary and
had seen what Jesus did "put their faith in Him. " Not a few, but many. There
are many people coming to faith.

There are many more coming to faith. The word of Jesus is getting out, who Jesus
really is is getting out, and people are no longer just saying, "Hey, I want to
follow Him so that He can feed the 5,000. " They're putting their faith in Him,
but not all.

The Bible says in verse 46 that here's what happened with some, "But some of
them went to the Pharisees "and told them what Jesus had done. " These are the
people that weren't really living life at all. You've got many who put their
faith in Him, and in a minute we're going to take a look at the Pharisees and how
they reacted against Him.

In some ways, I'd rather be one of them, hot or cold, than these lukewarm people
in verse 46, just gossiping about Jesus, just sort of living on the outside
edges of life. They go and they tell what Jesus has done, and because they go
and tell what Jesus has done, a strong reaction happens. Listen to what happens
in verses 47 to 53.

"Then the chief priests and the Pharisees "called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
"'What are we accomplishing? ' they asked.

"Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. "If we let him go on like
this, "everyone will believe in him, "and then the Romans will come and take
away "both our place and our nation. "And then one of them named Caiaphas, "who
was the high priest that year, spoke up.

"You know nothing at all. "Do you not realize it is better for you "that one man
die for the people "than that the whole nation perish? " He did not say this on
his own, but as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for
the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation, but also for the scattered
children of God to bring them together and make them one.

And so from that day on, they plotted to take his life. They come together and
they ask, "What are we accomplishing? " You see, this miracle, this great
miracle, for them equaled that the Romans were going to come in and take away
our place and our nation.

Now remember, under Roman rule, the nation of Israel is under Roman rule.
They're allowing the people of Israel to have a semblance of their own
government, a semblance of their own control, as long as everything stays calm.
But if Jesus begins to gather more and more in the crowd, and they turn to him
more and more as their leader, they know that the Romans are going to come in
and try to quench that seeming rebellion.

And in that, they're going to lose their place. They're going to lose what good
things might happen in their life. Now all this happened, this discussion, in a
meeting called the Sanhedrin.

What is the Sanhedrin? The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jewish people.
71 members, presided over by the high priest, who we learn is Caiaphas.

And there were two major parties in the Sanhedrin. The party of the Sadducees
were a majority. All the chief priests that are talked about here, all the
priests were Sadducees.

And the party of the Pharisees was an influential minority. The Sadducees were
more the wealthy. They were more the influencers.

They were more the political thinkers. The Pharisees were the religious
thinkers. They were those who were trying to live a pure and holy life before
God.

And here they come together in this meeting to determine the fate of their
nation. It's like Congress talking about Jesus and what they should do about
Jesus. And in the midst of this conversation, the high priest Caiaphas stands
up.

He interrupts, he says, "You don't know anything at all. " If you read history,
the Sadducees were famous for their rudeness. They would interrupt each other
all the time like this.

And then Caiaphas, who was, by the way, high priest, he'd been high priest since
AD 18. He was high priest for 18 years. But it notes here that he was high
priest this year.

That doesn't mean just for one year. That means this crucial year, this crucial
moment in history when Jesus Christ came into the world. You know nothing at
all.

And then he says it's better for one man to die for the people. Now he meant it
as a cold calculation, but God meant it as a prophecy. He prophesied and he
didn't even know it.

What's happening here is God is respecting his position as high priest by
motivating these words from his mouth while his heart is still far away from
God. And he doesn't even understand the depth of the meaning in his words. He's
looking forward to the cross with these words.

Jesus is going to die for all of us. And then this meeting of the Sanhedrin ends
with the fact that from that day on, they plotted to take his life. It's
interesting at the beginning of this chapter, Thomas says, let's go and die with
him.

Caiaphas says, let him die so that the nation will not perish. The sisters say,
if he had not been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died. The people in this chapter
are all talking about death, but what is Jesus talking about?

Jesus stands powerfully in the midst of all this talk about death. He says, I am
the resurrection and the life. People begin to respond to Jesus, to react to
Jesus.

And Jesus sees what's happening. And so in verses 54 to 57, as we end the verses
in this chapter. Therefore, verse 54, Jesus no longer moved about publicly among
the Jews.

Instead, he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim,
where he stayed with his disciples. When it was almost time for the Jewish
Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial
cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus.

And as they stood in the temple area, they asked one another, what do you think?
Isn't he coming to the feast at all? But the chief priests and the Pharisees had
given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was, he should report it so
that they might arrest him.

So here you see Jesus no longer moving about publicly. He's withdrawing because
it's not quite time yet for him to go to the cross. And here you also see the
people looking for him as they go up to Jerusalem to be ceremonially washed
before the Passover.

And here you see the Pharisees out to arrest him. What you see is that this
situation is about to explode. This is the transition point in the Gospel of
John.

From here on, we're going to enter into the last week of Jesus's life. So at
this transition point, let's just pause for a minute. Through this first part of
the book of John, the first 11 chapters, you've seen five of the seven famous I
am statements of Jesus.

I am the bread of life, he said in chapter six. I am the light of the world, he
said in chapter eight. I am the gate, chapter 10, verse nine.

I am the good shepherd, chapter 10, verse 11. And then this week, I am the
resurrection and the life, chapter 11, verse 25. In coming chapters, we're going
to see him saying, in chapter 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And in chapter 15, I am the true vine. We've seen five of those seven I ams, and
we've seen all seven of the signs of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus. In chapter
two, he turned the water to wine.

In chapter four, he healed the nobleman's son. In chapter five, he healed the
man at Bethesda. In chapter six, he fed the 5,000.

And in chapter six, he also walked on water. In chapter nine, he healed the
blind man. And in chapter 11, we have this raising of Lazarus.

And what's happened through it all? Through the statements and through the
signs, we've clearly seen who Jesus is. And all along, people have been
responding to him.

Some have responded to him negatively, some positively. They've responded based
on their faith or their lack of faith. And now, as we enter into this last week
of Jesus' life, we're going to see that response magnified.

I want to share with you that, to me, John, beginning in chapter 12, is a holy
place. And so, as we come to the end of our look at John 11, at the way that
Jesus did this miracle and that he waited, he went, he wept, he worked, what I'd
like to do as we end this message is take a few minutes to talk about what we
just looked at. This miracle-working God who can bring what is dead back to
life.

So, as we pray today, I want to invite you to pray back the truths of these
first 11 chapters of the book of John. Say to Jesus Christ, Jesus, thank you for
who you are. You are the bread of life.

You meet my deepest needs. You are the light of the world. You show me the
direction to go, where the hope is.

You are the gate. You're the way to life. You're the good shepherd.

You're the one I can depend on. Jesus, you are the resurrection. You are the
life.

You're the life that I need. In these miracles that you've worked, you've shown
your power, whether it was turning water to wine or feeding the 5,000 or healing
a blind man or raising a man from the dead. You've shown your power.

You've shown your power over everything that might hurt us or steal life from
us. And I know, Jesus, that life in this world is never going to be perfect, but I
also know that you are perfect. You've shown yourself to be who you really are.

So I take a moment right now to worship you, to pause in your presence, and to
worship you for who you really are. God, I pray, Jesus, I pray that who you are
would impact the words that I say, the thoughts that I think, the things that I
do throughout this day today. I pray this, Jesus, in your name, amen.

Well, join us next week. We begin to look together at John chapter 12, the last
week of Jesus's life.