John 11:45-57 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is John 11:45-57. I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
John 11:45-48 (NIV)
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.
46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 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.
48 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.”
On verses 45-48: The Sanhedrin, being the ruling council of the Jewish people, meet to discuss what to do about the popular, miracle performing Jesus. The chief priests and Pharisees were concerned that the kind of following Jesus was getting would get the entire Jewish people in trouble with the Roman government and cause them in particular to lose their place of power.
Similarly, each one of us has to decide what to do with Jesus in our lives. Some of us, like the Pharisees and chief priests, reject Jesus because we are unwilling to give up control. Because we want to stay in power and are afraid of losing “our place” (v48), we try to eliminate Jesus from our lives. Yet, ironically, true peace only comes when we relinquish control to Jesus and let Jesus take our place as ruler of our lives. So don’t be afraid to let Jesus take your place as king of your life.
John 11:49-53 (NIV)
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all!
50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation,
52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
On verses 49-53: As the Sanhedrin ruling council meets, Caiaphas the high priest recommends that Jesus be killed, lest his popularity cause the entire nation of Israel to be in jeopardy with the Roman government — “it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish” (v50). According to John, these words from Caiaphas had prophetic import. For Caiaphas was unintentionally foretelling the day that Jesus would die for all the Jews (v51) and all those who would one day become part of God’s family (“the scattered children of God” – v52). Without knowing it and without trying to, Caiaphas and the chief priests were ultimately advancing God’s agenda to have Jesus killed to pay for the sins of the world.
What can we learn from this? In His amazing sovereignty and wisdom, God can use even people’s evil intentions and evil deeds ultimately for good. That is not to say that God Himself is evil or that the end justifies the means. Rather, God is so big, so sovereign and so wise that He can take even the biggest mistakes, the most misguided decisions, the most unintentional occurrences, and even people who have no concern for God, and use them all to accomplish His purposes.
John 11:54 (NIV)
54 Therefore 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.
On verse 54: Here we see Jesus exercising caution now that the chief priests and Pharisees are bent on killing him. This reinforces an ongoing theme in the Gospel of John, which is that Jesus was careful and shrewd when it came to dealing with people. While Jesus loved people, he would not entrust himself to people (John 2:24). In so doing he avoided getting himself into unnecessary or untimely trouble.
Not moving about publicly anymore, Jesus withdraws to a region near the desert. In so doing, Jesus is getting ready for the final and most important phase of his ministry. Here Jesus is transitioning from being a public teacher and healer to being the sacrificial lamb whose death would atone for the sins of the world. Just as the Beatles, at the height of their popularity, decided to stop performing publicly and went into studio seclusion where they would create what many consider to be the most important and genre changing rock music of all time, so Jesus, at the height of his popularity, would stop teaching publicly and would withdraw to a remote place in preparation for his greatest and most important work of all: dying for the sins of the world.
John 11:55-57 (NIV)
55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.
56 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?”
57 But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was, he should report it so that they might arrest him.
On verses 55-57: The Passover festival was one of the most important festivals in the Jewish calendar, a time when Jews would annually remember how God rescued their people from slavery in Egypt and, as part of this, how God’s spared every firstborn Jewish male through the sacrifice of a lamb. It is uncanny, incredible and fitting that the Passover festival would form the contextual backdrop for Jesus’ death. For just like a Passover lamb, God’s Son Jesus Christ would be sacrificed so as to spare all of us from the death we deserve for our sins. While scores of people (some scholars estimate up to 2.5 million people) were crowding into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, Jesus was getting ready to be our Passover lamb, “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).
Lord Jesus, thank You that You came to take my place. First You came to take my place on the cross. You are the Passover lamb who was sacrificed so that I could be spared. Now that You have died and risen again, may You now take my place as king and ruler of my life. Let Your kingdom come in me and through me. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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