Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture- John 10-12
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: It's good to see you today. My name is Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin, Texas. And this is our journey through scripture. And as we are now in the New Testament and the gospels, we're building up to the triumphal entry that we'll talk about. And last we looked at the synoptic gospels, so Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and Jesus' journey through Judea as he's getting to the point where he'll enter into Jerusalem for the last time. We're going to look in John and kind of his build up to Jesus coming into Jerusalem. So we'll be in John chapters 10, 11, and 12, and just part of chapter 12. So not a whole lot today, but this is the story of Lazarus, which is a very key point in the Gospel of John. In fact, it's the last kind of big sign that Jesus is the Messiah. So in John chapter 10, starting in verse 22, you have Jesus at a feast. The tensions are rising. You can tell that the religious leaders are getting very frustrated with Jesus. ⁓ They ask him in verse 24, says, then the Jews surrounded him, said to him, how long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. So they're wanting Jesus to just come out and say, I am the Messiah, I am the Christ. The problem is that they don't, ⁓ one, they're looking to kill Him already, but they also don't understand the type of Messiah or the Christ that He is going to be. Jesus continues to say things that ⁓ to them sound like blasphemy because He is claiming to be God. You continue on at verse 27, Jesus says to them, sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. All right, so very, very powerful statement there. Again, if they understood what the Christ, the Messiah ⁓ was that God had in mind, they would understand that he is telling them that he is the Christ by saying this. But they didn't interpret it that way. They interpreted it as blasphemy. So then in verse 31, it says, the Jews took up stones again to stone him. And Jesus answered, many good works I've shown you from my father, for which of those works do you stone me? And they answered, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy and because you being a man make yourself God. Jesus continues to push back on that. He says in verse 37, if I do not do the works of my father, do not believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him. ⁓ They did not like that answer either. So you can see the stalemate here. There's no way that Jesus is going to be able to prove to them that he is the Messiah because their understanding of the Messiah is something completely different. And they will never be able to get past the fact that Jesus is claiming ⁓ to be God. And that basically sets Jesus's earthly fate. ⁓ Then you continue, Jesus kind of leaves, he goes back to the place where John had been baptizing outside of Jerusalem. And then says in verse 41 of chapter 10, then many came to him and said, John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this man were true. And many believed in him there. So there are many who are starting to believe in Jesus, that he is the Messiah. Now that is not the case in Jerusalem, but outside of Jerusalem, we are definitely seeing that. Then you have chapter 11, that is the death of Lazarus. Lazarus is the brother of Mary and Martha. Mary and Martha are very close to Jesus. We've seen them before. They love Jesus very much and Jesus loves them and is close to that family. And they hear that he's sick. And Jesus decides, I'm going to go there. And he's kind of giving indications that this is going to be the sign that changes everything. And I thought it's very interesting as you read all of this, it's important to read the whole, it's a whole chapter of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And one thing that kind of jumps out to me in verse 12, it says, then his disciples said, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get well. However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking rest and sleep. So they don't want to go back because they know that the tensions are rising, right? They want to protect Jesus. Then verse 14, Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sake that I was not there that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him. So the disciples were kind of like, well, if he's just resting. then he's gonna get better so we don't have to go down there. And if he's dead, well, he's dead, we can't do anything about it, we don't need to go down there. Again, their concern is protecting Jesus. Jesus knows that his time is coming. And I love this, know, as much as ⁓ Thomas gets criticized for being doubting Thomas, right, because he didn't see, he wasn't with the group after Jesus rose from the dead. Here he says in verse 16, then Thomas who is called the twin said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. See the disciples knew that things were getting serious. I love the loyalty, the love that Thomas clearly has says, you know what, if Jesus says we're going, we're going and we can just die with him. And so the disciples even recognize how challenging and dangerous things were becoming. Then Jesus gets there, he has an encounter with Martha and Martha says, if you would have just been here. And then Jesus says to her in verse 23, your brother will rise again. And Martha says, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. So, her understanding, she was taking comfort in knowing that God would bring Lazarus to him. at some point down the road. But Jesus said to her, am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And she said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world. So an interesting kind of encounter here where Jesus is basically saying, I'm going to prove to you that I am the resurrection of the life. But Martha, you know, she gets criticized because she was the one working earlier, you know, and Mary was the one that was listening to Jesus. ⁓ But Martha clearly understands who Jesus is, that he is the Messiah. And this is before he raises Lazarus from the dead. She's still not expecting him to raise Lazarus from the dead. And yet what a... powerful testimony that she gives that you are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world, right? That she, again, unlike the religious leaders, she recognizes who Jesus truly is. Then Jesus encounters Mary, has a conversation with Mary. This is where Jesus weeps because he just sees the mourning and the grief and the gravity of the situation. And so he weeps with them. But then he goes to the tomb, says, take away the stone. ⁓ Martha says, ⁓ Lord, he's going to be pretty stinky. I love that. That John puts that ⁓ in the account. Just to emphasize, no, he's been dead for four days. This isn't going to be pleasant. And Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? Now they took stone away ⁓ from the place where the dead man was lying and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me and now that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe ⁓ you sent me. Now when he had said this, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazare, come forth. And he who had died came out. hand bound, hand and foot with grave clothes. Just a really cool encounter here that Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb and Lazarus comes out. And then you see that this actually makes things worse in verse 45. Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did believed in him, but some went away. They told the religious leaders, And the religious sees if we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation. So just pretty interesting that they are scared that Rome is going to come and take power away from them because people are going to believe in Jesus. And then Caiaphas, the high priest said, you know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is ⁓ expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish. So they are justified. What they're doing is for the best of everyone. We can get rid of this one guy and yeah, maybe we don't really have the justification to do it, but we can do that because we need to save everyone else. And so now they... ⁓ kind of send out their spies and said, we need to find out when this guy comes close so we can seize him. And so then in John chapter 12, verses 10 through 12, you see Jesus has kind of come back to Mary and Martha and he's dining with Lazarus. ⁓ And this is where ⁓ Mary takes some very expensive perfume and ⁓ washes Jesus' feet with them. And ⁓ Judas, says, wait, wait, we could use that to feed the poor, right? Kind of one of those things where actually he's just counting the dollars and he's more concerned about lining his own pockets at this point. And Jesus says, no, what she is doing, she's preparing me for burial. The poor you will always have with you, but not me. And kind of again, interesting exchange. It's also shedding light on Judas and who he truly is, that he has lost his way. And then we have the plot to kill Lazarus. So even Lazarus, the religious leaders are mad at him. Now a great many of the Jews knew that he was there. This is verse nine of chapter 12, ⁓ but that he might also see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead, but the chief priest plotted to put Lazarus to death also. because on account of him, many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. They just, they can't have this believing in Jesus anymore, so we need to get rid of everyone associated with him. Which again, makes sense why Thomas would earlier say, well, let's go down and die with him, because they knew this was a possible reality. All right, so we will look at the triumphal entry. So let's look at Matthew chapter 21, Mark 11. Luke 19 and into the first part of chapter 20 and then the rest of John chapter 12. All right, so we will look at that.