John Chapter 11:45-57

Jesus died for us. He died for you and for me. Not just those people who were near, who perhaps are in church this morning, but for the people who were out late last night, who didn't get home till wee hours in the morning, who were doing things with their bodies that they shouldn't have done, and they didn't even think about coming to church this morning.

Jesus died for them as well. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, we have one of David McGee's associate pastors, D.A.

Brown, with us. Welcome, Brother D.A. Hey, Bob.

Hope you're doing well. I'm excited about today's teaching with Pastor David. It's important that we know Jesus died for us, plainly. In fact, He died for all of us so that we could know Him. Today, Pastor David explains why this truth is so important and how it can change our life as he continues teaching in the Gospel of John, Chapter 11.

Sounds good. So here's David McGee with Part 2 of his teaching, What Shall We Do? We're in John, Chapter 11, Verse 45. Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did believed in Him, but some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things that Jesus did.

Now, this is so awesome because think about this, guys. The day before, the sisters, they were bummed out. Their brother had died. On top of that, they thought that if Jesus had been there, and so they were disappointed in Jesus, and their brother died, and they're going through all these things, but then what happens? Jesus comes in, and when Jesus comes in, and this is the next life lesson, what a difference one day can make. What a difference one day can make because now their brother, he's been resurrected from the dead. Their faith in Jesus has been restored. What a difference 24 hours can make. Do you understand that? Because we often think in terms of months and weeks and years even, or even whole lifetimes, but to a believer, in 24 hours, man, everything can change. Everything can change. The person you've been praying for to get saved can get saved like that. 24 hours makes a lot of difference. And what a powerful witness Lazarus was.

Why? Because he had been dead, and now he was alive. That's the reason our witness means so much to others because we were dead, and now we're alive, and that's an opportunity. People call you. What are you getting ready to do? I'm going to church. Going to church?

What are you going to church for? Oh, man, my life has completely and radically changed because you know what? I discovered who Jesus really is. Not the God who's got a big stick beating up everybody hiding in a stained glass building.

I mean the real Jesus, and you're filled with life, and you've left the death behind, and that, my friend, will intrigue people. Really? What happened? How'd this happen? Where'd it happen?

Who'd it happen with? They begin asking questions when they see life and vitality and excitement in the life of the believer, and that's what's supposed to be going on in our lives. Verse 47, then the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, what shall we do? For this man works many times and works many signs. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

That's interesting he would say that. Now understand, it says the Pharisees and the chief priest. The chief priests were of the Sadducees, and so the Sadducees were more of the liberals. The Pharisees were more of the conservative, but they joined together to fight against Jesus, and they're trying to come up with a plan to fight Jesus, and it's interesting they say their greatest fear is that, you know, Romans will come away and take away both their place and their nation.

You realize within 40 years exactly that would happen? That the temple would be leveled, not a stone upon a stone. The temple mount still exists. The temple is gone. As a matter of fact, when the Romans went in and they laid siege to it, somebody either accidentally or on purpose set the temple on fire. The gold melted beneath the cracks in the stone, so they dismantled the stones to get the gold out as it was foretold, and so their greatest fear came to pass.

Why? Because of the rejection of Jesus. You understand the same thing can happen to us? What is your greatest fear? Well, it probably has to do with dying, with death. I think that's probably the majority of people.

You know the way you can deal with your greatest fear is to accept Jesus, or if you reject him, you've got good reason to fear, because that day will not be a good one, but if it's with him, it will be a good one. You see, here, these guys, they had, the fix was kind of in. They had this big system, and we'll go into it more later in John, but they kind of had a fix into the temple system where it was making them very, very wealthy men, and Jesus was a revolutionary that was about to upset the whole system. I'm not sure how we went to the revolutionary Jesus that we see in scripture and what we see in the church today. I'm not sure how that connects.

That connects. See, even when somebody does get radical and revolutionary, we tell them they need to balance their zeal with wisdom. Now, there's a little bit of truth in that, but you know what? Boy, I'd rather have somebody that's got a lot of zeal. I'll teach him.

I'll share the word with him, but it's a lot harder to take somebody that's got wisdom and give them zeal. We need to be revolutionary, and oh, man, when I read, okay, rabbit trail pet peeve here, when I read in the editorial section about how Jesus wouldn't do this and Jesus wouldn't do that and how Jesus was just here to get along with everybody and kind of make everything a little smoother, and I'm thinking, what Bible are they reading? I don't see that at all. I see somebody that was radical. I see somebody that was revolutionary. I see somebody I want to follow. Jesus heals somebody on the Sabbath.

They get all freaked out. He's like, oh, don't like that, do you? So he heals again on the Sabbath and again.

You know what I mean? Seven times he heals on the Sabbath. Was that by accident? No, it wasn't by accident. As a matter of fact, one time in the synagogue, the man with the withered hand, are you aware of what he did?

Stand up and come up to the front. I mean, he didn't say it, but it was inferred so everybody can see that I'm about to heal you on the Sabbath. I love Jesus, man. How did we get from who he was to what we portray him to be now? I don't know, but it sure isn't a biblical Jesus because he's stirring up trouble here, huh? In this section, the religious faction is trying to figure out what to do with him.

What are we going to do with him? And incidentally, you know what? If you're a young person in here, don't think you got to go do something weird to be radical, be punk or be Gothic or be rap or urban or gangster or whatever. There's lots of people doing that. You want to really be different? Follow Jesus.

Follow Jesus. The whole world is telling you right now, and I know it's a tough age, the whole world's telling you, you need to fit in. You need to fit in. You need to do this so you can fit in. You know what?

Don't buy it. Jesus says, follow me and stand out. You have. When you pray to Jesus and ask him to forgive you of your sins, you have his approval. Guys, you don't need anybody else's.

You don't need anybody else's. You want to be radical? Follow Jesus. In verse 49, and one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, 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. Now this he did not say on his own authority, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. You know, occasionally somebody that's not walking with the Lord will come up with something spiritually profound.

This is the case here. And what's so sad is Caiaphas knows about Jesus. He's hearing about Jesus. He actually saw Jesus, but he was never saved as far as we know.

How sad that is. But the life lesson there, if the heart will not yield to the truth, then even the grace of God cannot bring salvation. If the heart will not yield to the truth, then even the grace of God cannot bring salvation.

Let me explain what I mean by that so there's no confusion. God, Jesus, died for everyone, but that does not mean that everyone is going to heaven. You see, there's some people, and it's a few, it's a small remnant, but there's a small remnant of people out there that believe and they teach. It's called universal atonement. What that means is that everybody's saved. Everybody's going to heaven, whether you're Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, New Ager, whatever. Everybody's going because Jesus died for everybody. In concept, Jesus did die for everybody, but we're told very plainly, Romans 10, nine, 10, and 13, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, if you believe in your heart, God raised him from the dead. Romans 10, 13, whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. People can go to church Sunday after Sunday, year after year, and never do this, and never know the Lord.

Do you remember the conversation when they came to Jesus and they said, but Lord, Lord, Lord, we did this, and we did that, and we did this, and we did that. Jesus didn't say, well, you didn't do enough good stuff. He didn't say, well, you didn't go to church enough. What he said is, I never knew you.

I never knew you. You never took the time, just a couple of minutes, to invite me to be your Lord and your savior and to have your sins forgiven. Oh, I pray that that doesn't describe anybody here this morning, that they've come so close, and yet we'll reject him and walk out without knowing the grace and the love of an awesome God. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment, but I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as savior. You need people to pray for him.

You need someone to present God's Word to him. Every day we're presenting God's Word to him here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the Pray for the Lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as savior, click on submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. What an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus.

Hey, Bob, I want to take a minute to pray for some listeners in the state of Idaho, specifically these cities, Cascade, Clarkston, Grangeville, Ketchum, Marcing and Boise, McCall, and Moscow. God, we thank you for everyone listening today. Lord, we pray that you would encourage them and remind them how much you love them. Lord, if there are some listening today who haven't put their trust in you, we pray that today will be the day that they would say yes to allowing you to forgive them of their sins, and that they would say yes to following you with all their heart, all their soul, and all their strength.

And Lord, we pray that you would get them plugged into a Bible teaching, Bible believing church. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 52, Caiaphas continues and says, And not for that nation only, but also that he would gather him so that we could be saved. Isaiah 53, 6 says, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, that's Jesus, the iniquity of us all. Notice that verse, please. Your attention, please. All we like sheep have gone astray. See, you can't really look at anybody else and go, look at them, my goodness, I can't believe they're just a heathen Gentile dog.

You ever come to church with me? This says all. You know what that all means in the Hebrew? It means all.

That's right. Every one of us have gone astray. Every one of us have messed up. So how come after we get saved, we start moving towards the Lord of life, we begin to look around and go, oh my, look at you, you're obviously astray.

How do we do that? Because we forget. We forget where we came from.

We forget where we were just a week or two ago or a year ago or maybe even 10 years or 15 years ago. But remember, at one time, that person that you're looking at and perhaps judging looks a lot like you or used to. I don't know about you, but having people look down their noses and condemn me, that never really drew me any closer to God. But having people explain how God wanted to forgive me, God wanted a relationship with me. Now, understand, part of the good news is the bad news that we stand condemned in His eyes because of our sin.

But too often, we major in the minors and minor in the majors. We spend 20 minutes telling about the bad news and they've already cut us off and they're already walking off before we get to tell about the good news. It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. It's what the word of God says. Isaiah 49, 6 says, indeed, He says, is it too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel? I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.

Check this out, guys. We're Gentiles. And unless you're a Jewish person and you know your lineage, a Gentile is a non-Jewish person. We didn't have an end until Jesus came in. Romans tells that plainly, that we've been grafted in, that the root supports us. And Jesus came to be a light to the Gentiles. So now, through Jesus, we have an opportunity to have a relationship with the Lord.

Why? Because Jesus died for our sins. It's not like we could run harder or try better to establish this relationship with God. It was broken. It would not work.

The Bible says if you've broken the law in one place, broken the law in one place, you've broken it, period. It's broken. And it's like standing on one cliff looking at another. There's no way to get there unless there's a bridge. And that bridge, my friend, is not your good works.

It's not your knowledge. There's only one bridge, and that's Jesus Christ. First John chapter 2 verse 2 says, He is the sacrifice for our sins.

He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world. And Ephesians 2 17 says, And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. Oh, I love that verse. You know why? Because it says He came not only for the ones that were close that perhaps were going to the temple, perhaps looking for God, but He came to those who were afar off.

You know what, friend? At one time, I was as far as far off could be. Not only was I not following the Lord, but I had played with church just enough to think I checked God out. Oh, I checked church out, and I understand.

I was disappointed in that. I didn't find the reality of Jesus and the religion that I was looking into. But I'd never checked out Jesus.

I'd never explored the reality of Jesus Christ. And Jesus went looking for me. I wasn't looking for Him. He was looking for me, and He found me. And when I heard the good news, He wants to forgive me.

What do I have to do? What do you mean just pray? Pray and follow Him, and that's it? No, surely there's more to it.

No, there's not. That's the last life lesson. Jesus died for us. He died for you and for me and the people around us. Jesus died for us.

He died for you and for me and the people around us. Not just those people who were near who perhaps are in church this morning, but for the people who were out late last night who didn't get home till wee hours in the morning who were doing things with their bodies that they shouldn't have done and putting stuff in their bodies that they shouldn't have put in there, and they didn't even think about coming to church this morning. Jesus died for them as well, those who are far off. But Jesus can draw them near.

So they've got a big problem here. It was bad enough when Jesus was healing people, right? It was bad enough when Jesus was taking blind people and giving them sight, but now they've got a real problem. There's a guy who was dead who is walking around now. Now, you know, as testimonies go, that's a pretty good one, isn't it?

Would that get your attention? I mean, you're sitting at a table and a guy goes, oh, yeah, I was burdened and laden with sin, and Jesus sent me free. Oh, praise God, yeah. Oh, and I was blind, and Jesus gave me sight.

Oh, that's awesome. I was dead. I mean, I still think, you know, Lazarus is not going to be the guy everybody's going to hang out with in heaven because in those discussions, it's going to come back to that. What happened when you met Jesus? Well, when I met Jesus, I was struggling with this.

I was struggling with that. Well, when I met Jesus, I was struggling with alcohol or drugs. Well, when I met Jesus, you know, back to Lazarus. Well, when I met Jesus, I was dead.

Oh, Lazarus, you know, and he would go off to talk to somebody else. But they had a problem. They had to deal with it, and they give themselves two options here.

Let's read and see what they say they are. Then from that day on, they plotted to put him to death. That was their solution. Their solution, they thought, was twofold, either leave him alone and have the ruin of the nation, or number two, that they should execute him and take him out of the way.

They didn't consider the third option. Maybe, maybe, this guy's the Messiah. He is the Mashiach Najid that we've been hoping would come into the world.

This is the guy. We should follow him. Friend, that's the third option for all of us, but so many of us seek to reject him instead of accept him, and it leads to sad consequences here in verse 54. Therefore, Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with his disciples. In the Passover, the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.

They would bathe in mikvahs before the Passover, so they would be ceremonial clean, and keep in mind, the mikvah was the precursor, if you will, to Christian baptism. Verse 56, then they sought Jesus and spoke among themselves as they sit in the temple. What do you think, that he will not come to the feast? Now, both the chief priest and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, and they might seize him.

Your attention, please. This takes us into the last week of the life of Jesus. You see, here from John 12 to 21, we're talking about the last week of the life of Jesus.

John spends a great deal of time on this, and there's some really good stuff, but you know what's happened is the conflict has heated up to the breaking point. The religious people are at serious odds with this radical, and they're coming up with a plan, and while we sit here this morning and we look at it, and perhaps we sit there and go, oh my goodness, look at the Pharisees and look at the Sadducees, but friend, in some ways, are you rejecting Jesus this morning? Is there an area of your life that you're not allowing him to be Lord of?

Then you're rejecting him in that area. Oh, Jesus, I'll follow you for that hour and a half, two hours I'm at church on Sunday morning, but you're walking with him. The power that Jesus put forth to be raised from the dead, and Jesus, the power he put forth to raise Lazarus from the dead, can you imagine for a moment that power? The power that also took Jesus out of the grave, out of death, can you imagine for a moment that power? Friend, Romans chapter eight verse 11 tells us something interesting. It says the spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, and just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by the same spirit living within you. That power, that power that raised Lazarus, that power that raised Jesus from the dead, that power is available to you today, to not live for yourself anymore, to not walk in death and bondage anymore, but to walk in newness and life, and that, friend, means that on that day that you pass from this life is going to be a glorious one.

It's not going to be a goodbye. It's going to be a see you later, because 1 Corinthians 15, 54, we'll close with this verse. So when this corruptible is put on incorruption and this mortal is put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Death will be done away with.

Oh, I know. See, the concept here is, well, God gave us the concept in nature, even as it's spoken of in the Bible. We're going to be butterflies one day, but that cocoon has got to go. As we walk in newness of life, we got to take off our grave cloths. Maybe there's some people here that have been walking with the Lord for years and years, but they're still walking around with their grave cloths on.

They got to go, and we get the joy of helping to do that. But perhaps there's some people here this morning, they've been to church. Maybe they heard what they thought was the gospel before, but it was some version of try harder, do better, do the best you can. God accepts that. Try to make your good outweigh your bad, and God will honor that. Friend, that's not the gospel.

If that was the gospel, Jesus would not have needed to come to this earth. See, because your good works could have earned it, but our good works can't earn it. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe You died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe You were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for You all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much He would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.