Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would work mightily in our hearts and our minds, our wills, our affections as we open your word.
Father, we thank you that as Jesus becomes the Savior of our lives and as he becomes Lord of more and more of our lives, that you build within us a deep inner freedom.
Father, we thank you for this mighty work of your Holy Spirit in our lives.
So, Father, pour out the Holy Spirit now and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please be seated.
Just want to sort of begin by asking for your prayers for me.
You know, I really do know how hard it is sometimes just to share about Jesus.
Maybe I'm way more sensitive to what people think about me than you folks are.
But just yesterday, I was in a Starbucks and I was working on my sermon.
I had this book out with my pen and I kept staring off into space and I was praying and I was having a hard time trying to put my sermon together.
But there's this couple that I'd never talked to before.
They were a bit older than me and they just, everything about them just said, these are two people that were probably university professors, just very urbane, educated, competent people.
But just somehow or another, from the way they dressed to the way they carried themselves.
And I'd seen them there quite a few times over the years.
I'd never talked to them.
And yesterday, after I'd been working away at my sermon for about an hour and a half, we got into a conversation.
And one of the very first things they asked me is if I was working on a speech.
Now, here's where I'm asking for your prayer.
I have to say that within myself, I paused and I almost felt like saying yes.
But I didn't want to say I was working on a sermon.
This isn't George at his best.
This is George as a sinner.
And I actually, it felt like a long time, but it was probably only a fraction of a second that went through my mind was, I'd like to really just sort of feel like I'm at one with these people, you know, urbane, educated, you know, whatever.
But, you know, probably in heaven I'll find out that one of you were praying for me at that exact moment.
But I said, well, actually, I'm not working on a speech.
I'm a pastor and I'm working on a sermon.
And that ended up bringing about a conversation we had for about 20 minutes.
But here's the other thing about that, which is so funny.
And so on one hand, I ask for your prayers because I'm a sinful, fallen human being.
And it's easy to just want to try to curry favor with people rather than bearing witness to Jesus.
You know, the funny thing, of course, is that we didn't have a bad conversation.
They didn't say, oh, well, you're really stupid.
I'm not going to talk to you.
We actually had a very good conversation for 20 minutes.
But here's the other funny thing about it.
That just before, but probably about five minutes before I prayed to them, I actually wrote down in my book two prayer requests because I was having a hard time.
I wrote down, Lord, how do I begin my sermon?
And the second thing is, Lord, how do I connect this sermon, this topic to Christians and non-Christians?
And five minutes later, I had my conversation with these two non-Christians.
It was only afterwards that I thought to myself, God answered my prayer in five minutes.
Especially because, and this is the last part about the story, because I actually probably didn't do a very good job talking to them.
It was one of those cases where afterwards I thought of 23 better things I could have said.
But, you know, I did my best because they asked me what my sermon was going to be on.
And I didn't do a very good job of answering it, partially because I was still trying to put things together in my mind.
But one of the things which we talked about, the three of us, was something which, in fact, has troubled me at a certain time in my life.
And I know troubles many Christians.
We got into a conversation about whether or not people only believe what they believe because that's what they were raised with.
Like, basically, they said to me, George, don't you think that if you're raised as a Christian, you become a Christian?
Like, people, if you're raised as a Buddhist, you become a Buddhist.
If you're raised as a Hindu, you become a Hindu.
And we had a bit of a conversation around that.
But that very, very topic is actually one of the main things that the gospel text, which we're going to look at, addresses.
Not in those exact terms, but it talks, in fact, it's a scripture text which talks about the importance of human freedom.
And the fact is that sometimes people have the possibility to use their freedom in a way which leads them towards truth.
And sometimes we use our freedom in a way which leads us away from truth.
But it's, in fact, actually essential to how God relates to us.
This is what I'm saying to you.
I was more like blah, blah, blah with them.
So one of the things we can do for each other is just pray that when God opens doors to talk about,
just bear witness that we're followers of Jesus, that we walk through that door rather than walk away from that door.
And that we pray for each other that we can do a good job in talking.
But also that we just pray for each other to know that if we don't do a good job, it's not the end of the world.
Life goes on.
God is still God.
But how does this text actually address this topic of freedom?
So if you get your Bibles and turn to John chapter 11,
John chapter 11, verse 45, it's actually sort of seen in a sense in the shadow of the text.
It's not what the text actually show.
On one level it shows, well, let's just look and see.
It's a very, very interesting text.
It's John chapter 11, verse 45.
And as I explained a little bit earlier, what's just gone before this is that Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead.
And if you go back on your own and read the story,
and one of the things that can be good is to print the Bible text out sometimes.
One of the things I actually do every week before I preach is I handwrite the scripture text out.
Because if you handwrite the scripture text out, it helps you to be more present with the text.
And then afterwards I do things, if you look in my notes,
I circle things with different colors and stuff like that to notice them.
And one of the things that's interesting is if you look at the scripture text and just circle all the times it gives you some indication that Lazarus is dead,
you'll see I think some 20 times in the 45 verses in different ways it emphasizes that Lazarus is dead.
And it emphasizes the miracle-ness of the miracle.
Miracle-ness isn't a word, but I just, you know what I mean.
It emphasizes the miracle, even to the point that Lazarus is buried in a cave with a stone rolled on top of it that takes several people to move.
The fact that he comes out with the cloth over his face, that even if he had been in a swoon,
the cloth would have suffocated him and he would have died.
And so it emphasizes the deadness of Lazarus.
And one of the things which is very interesting in the text is that the way that circumstances work,
there's a fairly large number of people who are there.
The miracle happens just two miles outside of Jerusalem.
So many people from Jerusalem have come.
And not only are there a large number of people there for the miracle,
but the miracle is witnessed by friend and foe of Jesus,
by people like Mary and Martha who love Jesus.
They don't fully understand who he is or what he can do, but they love Jesus.
They're Jesus people.
And it's also witnessed by a lot of people who are anybody but Jesus people,
anti-Jesus people.
And both types of groups are all there for the miracle.
And so this spectacular miracle happens.
A man who's been dead for four days,
Jesus brings him back to life.
So what is the response to the miracle?
Well, here's where we start to get into the issue of human freedom.
Like how do people respond to this very, very powerful miracle?
Well, this is what the text begins with in verse 45.
Many of the Jewish people, therefore, who had come with Mary
and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Many did, but not all of them.
Verse 46,
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
Now just pause there.
They didn't, the but which is there, it's a, sorry, I love saying this.
It's a big but.
And it's a, it does, they don't go to the, they don't go to these people and say,
wow, you guys are going to believe Jesus too after this.
No, they know that these are the people who hate Jesus.
And they go to cause Jesus trouble.
Like it's really interesting.
They use their freedom to go out of the way to cause Jesus trouble.
They're not even indifferent.
They want to have Jesus get in trouble.
And so how do the people react?
Verse 47,
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council.
And just sort of pause there.
The actual word in the original language is Sanhedrin.
And that means this is a very special council.
And there's nothing really like it in Canada.
So just try to imagine that in Canada, if Canada was sort of at the very highest level of ruling Canada,
you had a group of, in this particular case, only men, a group of men that's both the Supreme Court
and also the cabinet and also the head of the police forces
and also the head of the religious institution
and also the top faculty, Université de Montréal and McGill and University of Toronto and UBC.
So you have the top academics, the top lawyers, the top cops, the top politicians,
all in one group to govern the country.
And that's who's gathered.
There's nothing like it in Canada.
We separate these powers.
But in that time, they were all one.
And so just, we'll read that verse 47 again.
So that's who's gathered.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, the Sanhedrin,
and said,
What are we to do?
For this man performs many signs.
Isn't that interesting?
They don't say,
This guy is the best magician I've ever come across.
He keeps fooling people.
They don't say,
Listen, this is the best drug dealer that we've ever come across.
He keeps giving people magic mushrooms and they're having these hallucinations.
He's the best trickster.
He's the best fraudster.
No, they don't say any of those things.
They say,
This guy's performing miracles.
This guy is performing miracles.
That's 47.
48.
If we let him go on like this,
Isn't that sort of funny?
As if God said,
I'm not going to perform any miracles there unless I have the permission of the Sanhedrin.
No, that's not how it worked.
It would be as if the Trudeau government,
or any government,
it doesn't matter who the government is,
or the next province of Ontario,
so it doesn't look like I'm playing political favorites.
They said,
No miracles by God are allowed in this province unless it's passed by the legislature.
What?
Like, that's just stupid.
Anyway, but that's how they're thinking.
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.
That's their worry.
And the word place here has sort of a double meaning.
On one hand, it means the temple.
On the other hand, it means our place.
Like us being the Sanhedrin,
us being in control,
us being in power.
And they say,
Listen, Jesus is performing all of these miracles.
We've got to fight against these miracles.
We've got to stop the miracles.
And if we don't stop the miracles,
Rome is going to destroy our nation,
the temple is going to be destroyed,
and we're going to lose our place.
So, verse 49,
one of them, Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year,
and by the way,
Caiaphas is known to historians.
He was the longest serving high priest of the first century.
He served from A.D. 18 to A.D. 36.
He's known outside of the Bible.
It's one of the many ways
that we see that this biography of Jesus
is historical
by their proper use of historical locations and names.
Verse 49 again,
But one of them, Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year,
said to them,
You know nothing at all.
In other words,
you guys can't think.
You're stupid.
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.
And in verse 51,
he did not say this.
Now, this is John speaking.
John, the writer of the Gospel,
says he did not say this.
That's Caiaphas.
Did not say this of his own accord.
But being high priest that year,
he prophesied
that Jesus would die for the nation,
and not for the nation only,
but also to gather into one
the children of God
who were scattered abroad,
so that from that day on,
they made plans
to put Jesus to death.
Now,
this is an odd story.
We're going to read some more of it,
obviously, in a moment.
But what's up
with Caiaphas
actually being able to prophesy?
Like, what's up with that?
How does that make any sense?
Caiaphas, Caiaphas,
is an envious,
power-hungry,
unjust,
manipulative,
insulting,
murderous man.
And he gets to prophesy?
Like, what's up with that?
Like,
like, what's up with that?
Is, is, is,
and this is what troubling,
if you think about it for a second,
for many people,
when they,
they think about that,
they go,
there seems to be like,
there's two types of possibilities.
One possibility is,
and this,
this feeds into the fear
that many people in our culture
have about Christianity,
is that God somehow
is rewarding him
for his evil behavior
to be,
to make him
able to prophesy.
Or is it
that God just sort of
all of a sudden
takes Caiaphas,
and Caiaphas is going around,
and all of a sudden,
Caiaphas is making his plans,
and all of a sudden,
God just grabs Caiaphas
by the head,
and overwhelms Caiaphas,
and Caiaphas,
against his will,
says the words
that God wants him to say.
Is that what's happening
here in this story?
What's up?
Well, Andrew,
hopefully you got that
I changed my points.
Did you get that?
We're going to find out.
Yes.
Thank you, Andrew.
So here's the first thing.
God works through human freedom.
The fact of the matter is,
is that Caiaphas is
an envious, unjust,
murderous,
power-hungry,
high priest.
That's what he is.
And the fact of the matter is,
is that what he said
is 100% from Caiaphas.
But here's the other thing about it.
It's also 100% from God.
And that's what's a little bit
puzzling to people.
You see, what it is,
is that God never,
many of the fears that we have
about getting close to Jesus
are really fears
about getting close to the devil.
It's lies that the devil tells us.
And he tells us lies
which speak very deeply
to our own heart
and our desire for power.
And the devil tells us these lies
about God.
God.
But really,
really what he's making us afraid of
isn't,
it's funny,
he's,
the devil is making us
sort of trust the devil
and worry that God
is like the devil
even as we trust the devil.
It's a very,
very powerful type of delusion
that the devil works in us.
That somehow or another
if we get close to God,
if we get close to Jesus,
if he becomes more and more
the Lord of our lives,
that somehow God
will overwhelm us
and take away our freedom.
But God works through human freedom.
It's in fact,
as we get closer to evil,
it's as we get closer to the devil
that our freedom is overwhelmed.
You've heard me use this example
many times
and there's lots of different ways
to put it,
but it's still a very,
very good analogy.
If you think about,
if you've ever been to a room
of drunk people,
like people who are just
really,
really drunk,
the drunkenness
overwhelms
their individuality
and their uniqueness.
It's hard to distinguish
between four drunk men.
When they're sober,
you might find that one,
in fact,
is really good at badminton.
One is really handy.
One can tell limericks.
One is really filled with jokes.
But as the alcohol overwhelms them,
it overwhelms them
and removes their uniqueness.
If you see four people
watching pornography,
if you were to videotape
four people deeply immersed
in pornography on their computer,
what you see is
you see the effect
of the pornography
reducing their differences
in their uniqueness
as they become slack-jawed
and empty
and overwhelmed
with lust.
That sin always
makes us less ourselves
and lowers us
to some type of
lower common denominator.
And you can go through
all of the sins,
whether it's anger,
whether it's pride,
that in fact
it always overwhelms.
And what we see here
in this particular text,
in the original language
in verse 51,
it says,
he,
that's Caiaphas,
did not say this
of his own accord.
But being high priest
that year,
he prophesied
that Jesus would die
for the nation.
And in the original language,
it says that
he didn't say this
from himself.
And what it means is
it's not that
the words
we have,
Jesus must die,
that came from himself,
but the prophecy
didn't come from himself.
So what happens
is that God
oversees,
Caiaphas is completely
and utterly free,
100% free,
but God,
in a sense,
uses Caiaphas' freedom
to see that the words
that he wants
to have spoken
are spoken.
But Caiaphas is 100% free
all the way through.
But some of you might say,
well, George,
what's up with that?
I thought you said
that the Bible
was inspired.
And now you're sort of saying,
I don't know
what you're saying, George.
You're saying that
a murderous,
power-hungry,
envious man
can say that
and they're free
and somehow
the right words come
and that doesn't seem
to make any sense.
Well, if you could put up
the next point, Andrew,
here's the thing
which is important
for us to remember.
It's the words
that are inspired,
not the person.
The words that are inspired,
not the person.
That's why
in the New Testament
we have
pagan poets
who are quoted.
We have
unjust judges
which are quoted.
And if you read
the Old Testament,
a donkey
is given the ability
to speak.
Now, you see,
if it was
that the individual
was somehow inspired,
not the words,
it would mean
that every time
that donkey said,
eah, eah, eah,
we'd have to have it
in the Bible.
It would mean
that every single word
that Caiaphas said
would have to be
in the Bible.
But it's not
that the individual
is that there's
something special
about the individual.
I've shared this analogy,
I'll say it again.
If they find,
if archaeologists
find another letter
by Paul,
and they can tell
that it says,
I, Paul,
the apostle,
and you can tell
that it's from Paul,
it would be a very
great interest
to scholars,
but it wouldn't
go in the Bible.
Why wouldn't it
go into the Bible?
Well, because Paul
was not an inspired individual.
It wasn't that
everything that Paul said
had to go in the Bible.
Out of the hundreds
of thousands of words
that Paul said
throughout his life,
only some of them
were the words
that God wanted
to have spoken
and then written down
and then recognized
as his
and then preserved
so that we have them today.
So that's why it is,
it's this,
it's the words
which are inspired.
These are from God.
It's not that the individuals
have some special power
of inspiration.
So it is with Caiaphas.
Caiaphas spoke
out of his own
evil, murderous heart.
But at the same time,
what he said
completely and utterly
of his own,
God used his words
to be a prophecy,
to be recognized
that Jesus was not
just dying for himself,
but that he was dying
not for the Jewish people
and for any person
in any people group
who would put their faith
and trust in him.
Now,
why is it
that,
but,
one of the things
then that people
might say,
well George,
I don't know,
you said that the,
that God is concerned
with our freedom,
but surely
if,
if God
has these words
words
that are his,
if you really believe
that these words
are God's,
doesn't that sort of
reduce our freedom?
Like,
doesn't that sort of
stand against us
in some way?
Like,
how can we really
be free
if like when Ken,
Ken just wrote,
read the Ten Commandments
just a little while ago,
you know,
you shall not do this,
you shall do this,
like if,
how is it,
that doesn't make
any sense,
George,
that if God
revealed himself
in words
that somehow
or another
were free?
But if you say that
or if you're thinking
about that,
you don't understand
what freedom is like
and you don't understand,
well,
here's the thing,
one of the things,
one of the fears
I had when I was a kid,
a teenager,
started to get interested
in girls,
is,
one of the fears
I had was,
how on earth
could I ever marry somebody?
I had a hard time
talking to a girl
for a minute
and if I married her,
I'd have to talk
to her for decades
and where on earth
would I have enough words
to talk to her
for decades?
Like,
how would that work?
And then the other problem
I had,
I used to,
I'm getting read
even talking to you
about this,
but I'd call up,
like I remember
when I first
would call up Louise
and I'd make a list
of things
to talk to her about.
I would go through
in my mind
at first
how the conversation
was going to go
and then I would make
a few notes
that I'd have
by the phone.
Now,
here's the thing
about talking
to a real person
as opposed to
how a conversation
is going to work
with an imaginary person.
Generally speaking,
my imaginary conversations
all work out fine,
but my conversations
with real people
don't work out
quite as fine.
I mean,
they interrupt
or they change
the topic
or they bring up
a topic
I hadn't thought about.
Well,
and that's what it's like
to be with a real person.
And,
see,
this is what's so powerful
about God's revelation
is it's not just
that God gives me some,
if God just gave everybody
private revelations,
they'd probably be
no different
than just me,
like me having
an imaginary conversation
with Louise.
Where before I met Louise
and I was trying
to imagine
the woman of my dreams
and how I would
talk to her
and how she would respond.
Oh,
George,
you're so wonderful.
You know,
whatever.
Get my jokes,
laugh at my jokes,
you know,
all that type of stuff.
You know,
never be mad at me.
I've told you this before,
right?
I'm so clueless.
I wish I'd written
all of these things down.
I remember the time
I told Louise
that she was aging beautifully.
And then,
because I'm so dumb,
I couldn't understand
why she was so unhappy
with me
for such a long time
afterwards.
But in my imagination,
that's not how
that conversation went.
That went swimmingly.
You see,
what Christianity shows
is that Christianity,
God doesn't restrict
our freedom,
but He's real.
He's real.
He speaks to me
through His Word.
And I might say,
oh yeah,
God's going to say this,
He's going to like this.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You shall not steal.
You shall not
commit adultery.
You shall not
bear false witness.
I do miracles.
This is how I am.
This is how I work.
This is relating
to a real being,
not just an imaginary one.
Like,
the fact that God
reveals
His Word to us
allows us
to have the freedom
to enter into
a relationship
with a real person,
not an imaginary one,
not a make-believe one,
not a fantasy one.
to sign
a reality.
It's
what allows
not only our freedom
to blossom,
but our love,
because
God loves us
and He wants us
to love Him back.
And that's
why,
I mean,
on one hand,
that's why there's
this tragedy of sin
and it's this tragedy
of evil
and this tragedy
of brokenness,
but God
reveals Himself.
In fact,
Andrew,
if you could put this up,
God's revelation
is open
and public,
not secret
and hidden.
God's revelation
is open
and public
and not
secret
and hidden.
And that
means that
you can't just
have some bishop
saying you
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
this is the way it is
and this is the way it is
because, you know,
even to a bishop,
it doesn't matter
if you have a,
you know,
one of the things
that was so hard
for me
when I was studying
at my equivalent
of seminary,
I mean,
I had these professors,
they had,
their IQ was probably
three times higher
than my IQ,
they effortlessly
knew six languages
and they were
very,
very eloquent,
but half the time,
more than half the time,
they were completely
and utterly wrong
and not wrong
because I'm Irish
and us Irish people
are used to dealing
with those
who are our betters
going
to them.
No,
because it's just,
that's not what
the Bible says.
Like,
they're just wrong
because it's not
as if they're somehow,
I mean,
all that knowledge
and all that,
if it doesn't,
like,
you can,
in a sense,
fell them
with a single word
from the Bible.
But doesn't Jesus say,
I am the way,
the truth,
and the life
when they tell you
that when they tell you
that Jesus isn't
the only way
or when they say
that there's the Christ
of faith
and the Jesus of history
and then you just point
to them all of the
different times
in the New Testament
where they say,
this Christ,
you crucified.
I mean,
it could go on
and on and on.
They can be felled
by a single public word
that,
in fact,
an open public revelation
deconstructs
and undermines power.
And makes it something
where God can speak
to all.
I mean,
the wonderful thing
about his word,
and this is one of the things
we should pray about
with our own Sunday school,
is that,
and those of you
who have young kids,
is the very first stories
that a child
can have read to them
can come from this book.
A little tiny child
snuggled up on your arm
and you can read them this.
Those wonderful teachers
who are spending time,
even with very,
very young children
out there,
you can be a part
of that too if you want.
We always need more teachers.
And the very first stories
that they ever hear
can be from this book.
And if God spares us
and Jesus tarries
and we die at 106,
the day before we die,
we can read this book too.
And you can have
a PhD in physics
or you can be
down syndrome
and you can read this book.
It's simple
and open
and public
and it's for all.
And it comes
from God
because he loves you
and because he wants you
to know about him
and enter into
a relationship with him
and come to know Jesus.
And it's open
and public.
It's not for the elite.
It's not just for those
who have high IQs
or have abilities
to have special relationships.
I mean,
special types of intuitions.
And here's the other thing
about this is that,
you know,
so we look at this thing
of Caiaphas
and we say to ourselves,
why is it that Caiaphas
has this special,
that God,
in a sense,
uses him
to prophesy?
like he's such a bad guy.
Like he's,
he's an evil man.
He abuses his power.
He abuses the law.
He,
he fights against God.
But you see,
even when we say that,
deep in our hearts,
we, like Caiaphas,
desire power.
If you could put up
the next point,
Andrew,
the fruit of the Holy Spirit
matters more
than the gifts
of the Holy Spirit.
The fruit
of the Holy Spirit
matters more
than the gifts
of the Holy Spirit.
Now,
that doesn't mean
the gifts of the Holy Spirit
don't matter.
And,
and for those of us
who are in Jesus,
we do receive gifts
of the Holy Spirit.
But the fact of the matter is,
is that God could use
a donkey to prophesy.
And if God gives you
the gift of prophecy,
well,
that's good.
And,
and hopefully you will
humbly use it
to the glory of God.
But you know
what really matters?
Isn't whether or not
you prophesy.
We should always remember
Caiaphas prophesied.
A donkey prophesied.
What matters
is the fruit
of the Holy Spirit.
And if you look
at that list,
and it comes from
Galatians chapter 5,
it's such a wonderful list,
isn't it?
Because there's
a singular fruit.
If you go back
and read Galatians chapter 5,
there's a singular fruit.
It's just one word.
But this one word,
this one fruit,
has nine aspects.
And isn't the,
excuse me,
aren't these nine aspects
a perfect description
of inner freedom?
Of an inner freedom
which is inwardly whole.
Love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
self-control.
This working
of the Holy Spirit
in our lives
describes this
wonderful,
powerful,
deep,
inner freedom.
And as Jesus
gets closer to us
and we get closer
to Jesus,
as he becomes
more and more
the Lord of our lives,
as the Holy Spirit
has a deeper role
in our lives,
what matters
is not whether
there's sort of
works of power,
not whether there's
words of eloquence.
What matters
is the fruit
of the Holy Spirit
working within
our brokenness,
our sin,
our woundedness,
our natural abilities,
excuse me,
our brilliance,
working within that
for this deep
inner freedom.
It's not just
an inner freedom
to do evil.
It's not an inner freedom
to get our way.
It's an inner freedom
characterized by love,
by joy,
by peace,
by being patient,
by being kind,
by being good.
faithfulness means
being trustworthy
and keeping your word.
And self-control
and gentleness
means that your words
are words that you
want to keep.
And your self-control
means your words
are words that you
say that you want to keep.
They're not just words
that mean you've flown
off the handle
and lost control.
The work of the Holy Spirit
is what really matters
in our lives,
the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
I just want to wrap
this thing all up
in a close.
Wouldn't you think
it was pretty pathetic
if you discovered
that your co-worker
had an app
so that every hour
the phone
sent him a message?
You're wonderful.
You're the best.
You're brilliant.
Gosh, I love you.
Like, if you found that out,
wouldn't you think
that's pretty pathetic?
He programmed
or she programmed
the phone
to send them
a message like that
all of the time.
You see,
God could turn you
into that phone.
God could use
all of his power
to program you
in such a way
that that's what
it would be every hour.
God, you're great.
God, you're wonderful.
God, you're beautiful.
God, I love you.
But he doesn't do that.
He can do these
wonderful miracles.
We're free to respond.
He can speak to us
from his word.
We're free to respond.
God, you're free to do it.
That, in fact,
everything about God's
relationship with us
is that he does everything
so that we will come
to that point
where we will
put our trust in Jesus
and receive
what he has done
for us
and that we will
love him freely.
And as the Holy Spirit
moves deeply
and deeply
in our lives,
it will only create
more and more
inner freedom.
You see,
one of the things
which is so powerful
about this text
is that Caiaphas
uses his power
so that he keeps
his place
by having Jesus die.
If you could put up
the next point, Andrew.
And that's generally
how things work
in this world.
Not that the powerful
want everybody to die.
Most of the time,
the powerful
don't give a hoot
about you.
They don't even know
you exist.
They don't even care
that you exist.
But if it comes time
to choose
for the powerful person
between them
keeping their power
or somebody else
having to die,
they will almost always,
we will almost always
choose the other person dying.
The powerful
want you to die for them
if it comes down
to the end.
But Jesus,
he has the power
to raise the dead.
He has the power
to feed 5,000 men
with a few loaves
and fishes.
He has the power
to heal a man
who was blind
from birth.
He has the power
to heal a man
who had been an invalid
for many, many, many decades.
He had a power
to heal a nobleman's son
who was very, very far distant.
He had the power
to turn water into wine.
But Jesus,
the powerful one,
dies for the powerless.
If you could put up
the final slide, Andrew.
It's very, very interesting
how John has chosen
to write this book.
If you go back
and read John chapter 1
and you'll see
how Jesus is first introduced.
I love this.
It's one of my favorite parts
in the Bible.
How is Jesus introduced?
Go back and look it up
in John chapter 1.
John the Baptist says,
Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world.
And now,
when all of the miracles
are coming to an end
that John is going
to talk to us about,
and as we come
to a final time
of Jesus teaching
his disciples one-on-one,
we see that Caiaphas
says that Jesus,
how does he put it?
Verse 50,
he says,
It is better for you
that one man
should die for the people,
not that the whole nation
should perish.
And if you go back
and read the next few verses,
this happens as people
are preparing for Passover,
where the Passover lamb
will be sacrificed.
We are to understand
that all of these
wonderful teachings
of Jesus
about rivers of living water,
about bread from heaven,
about eternal life,
we are to understand
that all of these miracles,
that it is the miracle worker
who dies upon the cross,
that he dies
in my place.
The heart of the gospel,
in my place condemned he stood.
True story.
You want to know
who wrote those words,
in my place condemned
he stood.
His last name was,
I'm not making this up,
Bliss.
His name was Philip Bliss,
1875.
What a savior.
It's one of the lines
in the hymn.
In my place,
condemned,
he stood.
That is the heart
of the gospel.
The powerful dying
for you and for me.
And we receive it
by faith.
You are free to choose.
But let me tell you,
that if you choose
to receive
what Christ has done
for you,
you are not going to have one
who is going to
so overwhelm you
and destroy your uniqueness
and destroy your individuality
and overwhelm your personality
and make you into a robot,
make you into a zombie.
No.
He died for you.
He loves you.
And I stand before God
not because I can speak well
or I can't speak well
or not because my church is big
or small
or this or that
or anything like that.
I stand before God.
My only confidence before God
is that in my place
condemned,
he stood.
That that which has kept me
far from God
fell on him
and he took the punishment.
and the innocence
and righteousness
and perfection
and goodness
of Jesus
comes on me
all out of grace,
all out of love,
freely bestowed,
freely to be received.
And as we receive
what Christ has done
and draw close to him,
his great work within us
will be a growth
of inner freedom.
Please stand.
Bow our heads in prayer.
Father,
we ask that you would grip us
with the gospel.
Help us to remember
who Jesus is.
Father,
that on one hand
we ask that you give us
a godly fear of you
that we might know
that you are God
and that we are not,
that we might know
where we begin and end
and where you begin and end
and how you are always God
and we are never,
ever,
ever God.
That's good.
That we might have
that deep sense
of that difference
combined with a thankfulness
and an awe
and a longing for you
which is that true
and proper fear of you.
Father,
we ask that you grant us that.
But Father,
deliver us from all foolish,
flesh-born,
devil-inspired fears
that you will somehow hurt us.
Father,
we thank you
that you will never hurt us,
that you will be with us
when we are in sorrow,
that you will be with us
when we are in difficulty,
that you will be with us
at the day of,
as we walk through the valley
of the shadow of death.
You will be with us
when we hear
the terrible diagnosis.
You will be with us
in our celebrations
and in our joys.
You will be with us
in our rising
and our lying down at night,
that you will be with us,
that you will walk with us,
that you will be our God
and that we will be your people
and that your Son died for us
and your Holy Spirit works within us
to bring inner freedom.
Father,
grow within us
that deep,
abandoned growth
of ability
to abandon ourselves
upon you.
And all these things
we ask in the name of Jesus.
Amen.