God Refuses to be Rushed - Live with Lon!

Hello everybody and welcome to Live with Lon. We're so glad to have you and we're still in John chapter 11, but we're going to finish it today.

So are you ready? Here we go. Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, I thank you so much for your word. Use your word again today in our lives. May the Holy Spirit illuminate our spirit that we might be able to understand and grasp the deep things of your word. And Lord, change the way we react to you and the way that we interact with you because of your words teaching to us today. And we pray this in Jesus' name. And everybody said what? Amen. And what? Amen.

Okay. We're going to get into chapter 11 and we're going to finish it off. So here we go. Verse 45. He said, what shall we do?

For this man works many signs. If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. And one of them, Caiaphas, being a 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 let me stop here and say, Caiaphas, this gentleman, we have found his remains in a bone box, an ossuary in Israel.

Yeah, this is amazing. A few years ago, digging up for a foundation. You know, they bring a backhoe in in Jerusalem and start digging for a foundation and ain't no telling what they're going to hit. Well, they hit this tomb that had ossuaries in them. An ossuary is a limestone box where after you've been dead for a little while in the ground, they would dig you up. And by then all the flesh would have melted off your bones and they would take your bones out of the grave and put them in this little box. And that way they could recirculate the piece of land, reuse it.

It's a very green thing that they were doing. And so we found this ossuary and guess whose name was inscribed on the side? You got it, Caiaphas. The ossuary, as you can see, is very ornate, indicating usually they're just a plain, you know, smooth slab of limestone, but this indicates that whoever's bones these were, that it was an important person. There's little argument now based on all the scientific and archaeological study that this is the Caiaphas. These are his bones.

The guy right here, the fellow right in verse 49. And I think this is unbelievably hysterical. It's on display in the Israeli Museum. I think this is hysterical that Caiaphas condemned Jesus to death and plotted his death.

Jesus rose from the dead and is alive forevermore. But we have the bones of the guy who sent him to his death. I think that's hysterical.

I think God's got a sense of humor. Of all the bone boxes we could find, we find his. All right, you may not think it's as ironic as I do, but anyway, this guy really lived. We got his bone box, for goodness sake. Now in the museum, the bones aren't still in it.

They've taken them out. But of course this guy lived. The more we dig out of the ground, the more the Bible proves to be right.

All right, let's go on with the story. So, in verse 51, and Caiaphas did not say this on his own authority, but being a high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. And not for the nation only, but also that he would gather together Jesus in one, the children of God who were scattered abroad. We don't have that prophecy anywhere mentioned except for here. We don't have the actual prophecy. Did God prophesy through an unsaved high priest? A prophecy that would come true about regathering the people of Israel to their land? I don't know.

Was this a true prophecy from God or one Caiaphas made up? I don't know. Well, what exactly is going on here? I don't know. This is the only place that's mentioned and I don't really know exactly what's going on with this.

But anyway, since I don't know what's going on, let's move on. And from that day on, they, the Jewish leaders, plotted to put him, Jesus, to death. Therefore, because they were, therefore, when you see a therefore, find out what it's there for. Therefore, because they were plotting to kill him, 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 he remained with his disciples. And the Passover the Jews was near and many Jewish people went from the country where Jesus was staying even up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. The Passover was one of the three festivals where Jewish people who could, who were close, were expected to make a pilgrimage up to Jerusalem, to the temple.

Then they sought Jesus and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple. What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?

How can that be? How can he skip the feast? He's not that far away as a righteous man, as a serious Jewish person. He should come to the feast.

What do you, what do you mean? Where is he? He should come here with his miracles and show off that he's the Messiah. Where is he? Why isn't he here? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was, that person should report it, that they might seize him. The minute he shows up in Jerusalem, let us know and we'll send, we'll send an armed guard and we'll seize him.

Now that's the end of our chapter. And you say, well Lon, I'm not quite sure I see anything in those verses that form a so what for my life. Okay, well, let's just look here at the passage for a minute in verse 45, we see that many people believed on Jesus when they saw Lazarus being raised from the dead. Well, I mean, I guess so.

He just raised the guy from the dead. But there are always doubters. I don't care how much evidence you put in front of their face. It's why many of your relatives and friends and co-workers don't believe no matter how much evidence you put before their face about Jesus, because they're blind spiritually and the Holy Spirit has not opened their eyes and they just can't see. I remember when I went to my high school, not my high school, my college fraternity reunion, and I got up and spoke and shared part of my testimony with my fraternity brothers who were there. You know, to this day, I'm shocked that so many of them who knew what an absolute reprobate I was in college, they had seen it with their own eyes. And now looking at me 52 years later with the Lord Jesus having changed my life, I'm shocked that a lot of them, it was like water rolled off a duck's back.

I mean, I'm serious. Did they come up and talk to me afterwards about the Lord? No. Did they come up and even express their surprise and let a conversation begin about what had happened in my life?

No. They didn't even seem to be the slightest bit affected by it. How could that be? You know, my conversion in many respects was similar to the Apostle Paul's.

I went from being an absolute reprobate into being a follower of Christ. How could it, how could they not see and understand that? I don't know. But just like here, some of these Jewish people who saw Lazarus raised from the dead, just water off a duck's back. Yeah, OK.

The sun just disappeared on me because I closed the blinds just a little bit. OK. Now, the Pharisees and verse 47, they said, what shall we do? This man works many with signs, many miracles. If we leave him alone, everybody's going to believe in him. And then the Romans are going to come and destroy our city because if they all believe in Jesus, then they don't believe in the emperor being God and the Romans are going to take offense at that and come wipe out our city. Probably true. If everybody in Israel had believed, probably true. Not to mention these rabbis would lose their power, which probably was really more the true reason they were worried. OK. Jesus's miracles, friends, were not hidden from sight. Even his enemies all knew about his miracles.

OK. But what I really want you to notice is the end of the chapter. Then they sought Jesus, verse 56, there in Jerusalem prior to the Passover and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple.

What do you think? That he will not come to the feast? Where is he? Now, these people were putting pressure on the Lord Jesus, and I'm sure they had put pressure on him where he was living there in Ephraim, the little village. It's time to go to Jerusalem for the Passover. Why aren't you going? Trying to spur him to go. I mean, he obviously wasn't moving and wasn't going, and they wanted him to go. They didn't understand why he wasn't going.

And they were pushing him and pressuring him that it's time to go to Jerusalem. Everybody's doing it. You should be doing it.

Why aren't you doing it? Now, was the reason because he was scared? I'll come to that in a few minutes as to why he didn't go.

But in the meantime, I want to show you this is not the first time that people have put pressure on him. Look at John chapter two, where Jesus turns water into wine. His mother, if you remember, comes to him at the wedding and look at they've run out of wine.

Now watch what she says. Verse three of John chapter two. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. Jesus, they have no wine. Time for you to make some wine to do something.

They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. She was trying to make him rush into action there.

I mean, he eventually did do something, but he wanted to deliver the message to her. Hey, you know, don't rush me. Don't rush me. I've got a timetable.

Don't rush me. And the people here in John chapter 11 were trying to do what? Well, they he has a timetable and they were trying to rush him to do what they wanted him to do.

Now, one other example. John Chapter seven, verse one. After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. Now, the Jews feast of Tabernacles was at hand, and his brothers therefore said to him, depart from here and go into Judea that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly.

If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers believed in him. Then Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come. Verse nine. And when he had said these words to them, he remained in Galilee. Verse 10. But when his brothers had gone up, he also went up.

Not in the open, but secretly. Now, once again, what are his brothers doing? They're trying to rush him into action. And he says the same thing to them. My time has not yet come.

Jesus was constantly dealing with people who were trying to rush him into action before his time was mature, before he was ready. Now, that's the whole point of this message. And but before I go more farther, let's ask our most important question. Are you ready? Here we go. Come on.

One, two, three. So what? Yeah. And you know what?

I'm going to let Jackie go back to his light colored suit. How sweet it is, as he would say it. Or as we would say it, how sweet. Come on, say it with me.

How sweet it is. Yeah. OK, so what's the takeaway? What's the not a sermon, just a thought? What's the point that I'm trying to make is that God refuses to be rushed. God refuses to be rushed. He refused to let his mother rushing Jesus did. He refused in John seven to let his brothers rushing. And here in John 11, he refuses to let people around him rush him. God refuses to be rushed.

Now, why is that important for you and me? Well, because we're always trying to rush God also. Aren't we? Yeah, we're always trying to tell God that he's he's late. He's behind the curve. He should have already acted. He should have already done this for us. He should have already fixed this problem for us. He should have already resolved this situation for us. And the Lord doesn't doesn't respond immediately.

And we get upset, sometimes even angry, certainly confused. Don't you think his mother was a little confused in John, too, that he didn't immediately say, Oh, sure, I'll make I'll make more wine, Mom. Don't you think his brothers were confused in John seven when he didn't say, Oh, you're right. Oh, you're right. I forgot about the Feast of Tabernacles. You're right. I need to go.

Don't you think these people here in John 11 were confused when Jesus didn't say, Oh, the Passover is coming? You're right. I let that slip. I'm so sorry. Thank you for reminding me. Let me get my stuff.

I'm ready to go. He didn't do that for any of these folks. Why? Because God refuses to be rushed. Hey, we want Jesus to return the way our world is today, the way our nation is today.

Everything is like literally, I think, coming apart at the seams. And we're like, even so, come Lord Jesus. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. He and he's not coming yet.

Why? He knows when he's ready to come and when he should. And he refuses to let us, no matter how many times we pray, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. He refuses to be rushed.

Now. The point I want you to take away is so don't rush him. So don't get upset when you're trying to rush him doesn't work.

So stop trying to look. Put your timetable on God's timetable. Your plan of action on God's plan of action.

Stop doing that. Stop trying to rush him. You know, we always want God to be early.

I've said this to you before. We always want God to be early. God's never early. He isn't.

But you know what? He's never late either. He's always right on time, right on schedule. His schedule. Moses wanted, don't you think he wanted the Red Sea to open a lot sooner than it did?

Yeah. But God wasn't late. It opened right on schedule, right when he needed it. Don't you think that Joseph wanted God to get him out of jail? He was in jail for 13 years from the time he was 17 till the time he was 30 in Egyptian jail. They didn't have televisions and they didn't play cards. And they didn't have recreation in the courtyard and, you know, or any of this other stuff.

I bet you jail in Egypt today is probably not nice. Can't even imagine it 3500, 4000 years ago. Anyway, why did it take God 13 years? Well, God wasn't late.

It happened right on schedule, right when the Pharaoh had the dreams and made him Prime Minister. And on and on and on. Folks, I have some stuff in my life right now, so does Brenda, where I'm wondering, Lord, how come you haven't dealt with these people? How come you haven't fixed this problem? How come you haven't resolved this, Lord?

We've been praying about this for years. Lord, I don't understand. How can you let these folks get away with what they're getting away with? How can you let them go? Unconfronted and unpunished and unadmonished and undealt with for all this time and they keep doing it.

And they seem to just be getting away with it. How come you, Lord? But what am I? I'm trying to rush you, Lord. Come on now.

We need to deal with this. You know, well, you know what? God's not, as much as I've tried, God's not going to let me rush Him. Sorry. Not going to let Brenda rush Him. Sorry. And you know what? He's not going to let you rush Him. Sorry.

He refuses to be rushed. So you say, what do you suggest we do? Well, I suggest we have the maturity to do what Paul and Silas did. I mean, they were in jail.

Acts chapter 16 there in Philippi. You think they wanted the jail bars opened? Of course, their backs were wide open from being beaten with lictor rods. I mean, you know, this is like lashes used to be on an English military ship, a Navy ship, where it literally ripped your skin wide open and they were tied to a rough rock wall.

I mean, I can't imagine. Nobody treated their back. Nobody had put salve on it. They were just thrown in the jail, chained to the wall. I can't imagine the kind of pain and discomfort they might have been in. But they didn't try to rush God.

What did they do? They gave it to the Lord and they were at peace. They sat there and sang hymns until the, boom, the angel came and blew the door off the prison.

How about Peter? When he was in prison earlier in the book of Acts, you remember? He was fast asleep.

Why? Because he wasn't trying to rush God. He was completely at peace that God would do what God wanted to do when God wanted to do it. And even if he asked God to rush, God wasn't going to rush. And then he could depend on God's timing and he went to bed fast asleep when the angel showed up.

The angel had to wake him up when he blew the doors open. My point is, when we have the maturity to say, Lord, I'm not even gonna try to rush you. I'm just gonna be at peace. Then there's a wonderful sweetness that settles over our life. A wonderful calm that settles over our life.

The peace of God that passes understanding settles over our life. And we're not fretting, we're not anxious, and we're not arguing with God, we're not trying to twist God's arm and cajole him into action. We're just willing to wait because we trust him. We have the maturity to see in the past that rushing him doesn't make any difference. And we can just trust him. And so we don't try to rush him. God refuses to be rushed. Let's be at peace with that.

Be at peace with that in your situation. Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, I think every single one of us here has at least one situation in their life, and probably more, where they've been trying to rush you into action. And where we, all of us, are confused, upset, angry, or at least frustrated that you're not acting. And we keep trying to rush you, but Lord help us to learn today that you refuse to be rushed. And if we'll just wait for you and be patient, and be at calm and be at peace, that you'll take care of things and that it'll be right on schedule. So Lord, take away all of our anxiousness and give us peace as we trust you and stop trying to rush you. And we pray this in Jesus' name. And everybody said what? Amen. And what? Amen. Okay, Lord willing and the creek don't rise next week, John chapter 12, and we bring the synoptic gospels back in as we approach the last week of Jesus' earthly life. Praise the Lord.