2025 The Ironies of the Cross (John 11:45-53)

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John 11:45-53: Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 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 signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation. Then one of them, named Caiaphas, was high priest that year, spoke up. You know, nothing at all. You do not realize that it is better for you, the one man die for the people than the whole nation perish. He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on, they plotted to take his life.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn to that passage, John 11. It’s page 872, if you’re using one of the black pew Bibles in front of you, I will. I do want to offer a special welcome to anybody who is here tonight for the first time. I love to get a chance to meet you, but if you can’t tell I’m pretty sick, so I’m not going to say hi to you tonight. So my name is Kyle again. We’re happy that you’re here tonight, but afterwards, make sure you say hi to Brandon or Jake. They’d love to get a chance to meet you, but tonight, I have the privilege of bringing this text for us tonight on this Good Friday after Abraham Lincoln was killed on April 14, 1865 there were three weeks of events following his death, starting with him lying in state in Washington, DC, where 20 to 30,000 people came to see to view the casket. There were other processions, and then another 10,000 gathered to see the train that his body went on as it started, from Washington, DC to Springfield, Illinois. And that train went about 20 miles per hour the entire way, touching 180 cities, through seven different states, making 13 stops in different capitals, in line in states that more people from the nation could come and pay their respects to their president. They say over 1.5 million people viewed Lincoln’s body. Over 7 million people lined the train tracks throughout the country just to get a glimpse. They would say when it was going to be coming. And people would line the train tracks to see the train because they respected their president and all that he had done for their country. Now, Lincoln often comes out on top as one of the most influential favorites, popular presidents in the history of the United States, year after year, when they do these studies and ask people because of his leadership in one of the most important parts of our history, which is the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves, we would expect nothing less than three weeks of mourning this president because of everything that he had done. We wouldn’t expect any less than that. And yet, tonight, we gather for the most significant person who ever lived, the most important person who ever lived the most written about person of all time, the one who influenced people like Lincoln and millions of others since, in fact, He is the Savior of the world, and he got nothing like Lincoln, nothing. No flag at half mast, no procession, no line and state, no eulogies, no big ceremony for his burial. Instead, we read about an innocent man who was unlawfully arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced, killed as a criminal. His body taken off the cross and hastily prepared for burial before the Sabbath. Then he was placed in the tomb owned by someone else. And all this happened, by the way, not in three weeks, but about 12 to 18 hours from the time he had his last meal with his disciples until the time he was put in the tomb. It’s ironic that one who has been written about more than anyone else in the history of the world, the most influential figure who has ever walked this earth, and not just in Christianity, but for others as well, would be killed as a criminal, buried to be forgotten. It’s ironic that when we get together on this Friday of Holy Week, we call it Good Friday. Certainly didn’t seem good that Friday when Jesus breathed his last and his head dropped, but we know on that Good Friday, we celebrate it now, because we know what happened that weekend that changed everything, and the ironies run throughout the Gospel story, and there’s no different for our text tonight, as Owen just read in John 11, 4553 We’re going to see some more ironies of the cross, and then I want to just really kind of reflect for a little bit on these ironies and draw some things out for us, some questions to ask tonight as we come to this important evening. But let’s look first at verse 53 the last verse of our passage. Here’s what it says. So from that day on they plotted to take his life. So there have been hints throughout Jesus’s ministry that the religious leaders wanted to get rid of him, that they wanted to kill him sometimes. But what is the tipping point to here in verse 53 so from that day on, they plotted to take his life. And our passage in verse 45 starts with therefore, so we have to go back and see what came just before this. What came just before this was one of the most popular stories in the Gospel of John, and that’s the story of Lazarus. Jesus’s friend, Lazarus has died. He receives word of this, and so he goes with his disciples to see Lazarus sister, Martha and Mary. And when he arrives, he finds out that Lazarus has been dead and in the tomb for four days. Jesus goes to the tomb with all the other mourners and with Martha and Mary, and he says, remove the stone. And then he doesn’t ask Lazarus. He commands Lazarus to come out. He has an ass Lazarus, if he wants to be alive again, he just says, Lazarus, come out. And the man who hasn’t had a heartbeat for four days, who’s wrapped head to toe in linen cloth, comes out. Jesus says, Take off the grave clothes and let him go. So what would you do in this moment? If you saw this, here’s what you wouldn’t do. You get home your wife, your husband asks, How was your day? Like any other day? Not that great. Or your teenager gets in the car. Would you do with the school? Nothing like you wouldn’t say that. In fact, if this was us at this time, we’d be trying to live stream this event. We’d be face time, we’d be calling, we’d be texting, saying, You wouldn’t believe what I just saw. Well, the people can’t do all of that, so what do they do? Instead, they start telling everybody. And then we see, in verse 45 therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did. Believed in Him. They believed they responded in belief this must be someone important, because we’ve never seen anything like this. So they lean in. They lean in and they say, I’m gonna follow him. In verse 45 we see this as an immediate answer to Jesus’ prayer a few verses earlier in verse 42 so if you just look up a little bit, you’ll see it. Jesus is praying in front of the people at the stone that he’s gonna have taken away and called Lazarus out. This is what he says. I knew that you always hear me. He’s praying to His Father, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me. I’m saying this so that they would believe. They’re going to see something I want them to believe in. Verse 45 is an immediate response to that many believed in him. There’s something different about him. But then we continue reading verse 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. They were witnesses to the same event. They knew Lazarus. They knew Lazarus before he died. They knew he didn’t have a heartbeat for four days. They see him come out of the tomb. What other explanation could they give? They saw all the same stuff. So intellectually, they’re like he was dead and now he’s alive. So we’re gonna go run tell the religious leaders what just happened, because they don’t know what to do with Jesus. Spiritually, they did not believe. They did not start to follow and trust in Jesus. They probably thought he was dangerous. They certainly just didn’t know what to do with him. And so they go tell the religious leaders what happened in both groups every time we’re in room this size, both groups are represented here, those who have said, I’m in and those who said, I don’t know what to do with Jesus quite yet. And so tonight, we’re going to hopefully answer that question. And there’s something for all of us in at this passage, as I’ve already mentioned, there’s a lot of irony in what happened on the cross. John 11 is no different. So what I want to do for the next few moments, again, is just reflect on some of these ironies, give us a question to talk, to consider, and then see how that impacts us as we celebrate Good Friday this year. Da Carson explains the ironies of the cross as the real meaning behind the raw events, the real meaning behind the raw events. Everybody saw Lazarus come out of that tomb. Not everybody saw the real meaning. Okay, everybody saw Jesus on that cross die. Not everyone knew the real meaning. And so the raw event and the real meaning behind it, we’re going to see those tonight, because the most raw event that ever happened is. Was that the Son of God was put on a cross and killed 2000 years ago. So let’s look this first one irony, one in the first few verses here, in 47 and 48 the religious leaders are worried. They’re worried because they think what Jesus is doing is going to cause a riot, going to cause a revolt, and Rome is going to respond, and Rome is going to take away their temple and their nation. The irony is that in just a few decades after they end up taking care of Jesus, so they think they’re going to end up losing their entire nation and temple anyways, in AD 70, when they decide to revolt in Rome responds, and Rome sacks Jerusalem, and everything changes. So they think in this moment, they’re taking care of it, not knowing what they’re eventually, God’s plan is underway regardless of what they do. And this is going to happen anyway, whether it’s Jesus or through another way, but everything is destroyed. And then here’s the other thing. The irony is that they want to destroy this movement, these followers of Jesus, and who Jesus is and what he’s teaching, because it’s not lying with what they’re thinking or teaching. And so they think we’re going to put this down. But what ends up happening is, when Jerusalem ends up falling in AD 70, the Christians start to spread even more throughout the world and expand. So the news that they wanted to keep in one place and hopefully see die actually spreads from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. It’s the irony of what happens in this moment. And look at verse 47 I love this question they ask, what are we accomplishing? We can answer absolutely nothing. Like, what are we accomplishing? This guy keeps doing these things, we cannot stop him. Don’t you find it interesting that they get news that Jesus just raised Lazarus from the dead, and their response is not, we want to hear more. Tell me more about this. They see the sign. Nobody questioned whether Lazarus was dead or not. They’re just saying, like, what do we do with this, the raw event, but not understanding the real meaning behind it. They just want to stop others from believing in Jesus, because they’re worried that taking away their temple and their nation is going to take away their authority and their power. It’s going to change the status quo that they’re pretty happy with the question we must reflect on this Good Friday. Then, is this, are you more concerned with what you might lose in following Jesus than what you might gain? Are you more concerned with what you might lose in following Jesus than what you might gain? Because they certainly were. They’re more concerned with losing their power and authority and their temple and their nation, rather than their souls. Jesus says this in Matthew 16. He says, forever, who wants to save their life will lose it. Whatever loses their life, for me, will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul, like Jesus is a threat. Jesus is a threat, but not in the way that the religious leaders thought. Jesus is a threat to the status quo. He’s a threat to our personal freedom, at least the personal freedom we think we have. But he’s a threat to it. But he’s saying, there’s a much better way if you follow me. And so the question is, what are we accomplishing on our own, in our life? What do we think we’re working towards? What are we actually going to end up with? What are you accomplishing by not giving up everything to follow Jesus? Because in John 10, just before this, Jesus is talking, and he says that he has come that we might have life and have it to the what to the full. Have life to the full. And that’s what he has come to do. And a full life is worth giving everything else up for losing our lives that we can actually find it. The second irony, look at verses 49 through 51 then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, spoke up. You know nothing at all. You do not realize it is better for you that one man die for the people than the whole nation perish. He did not say this on his own, but his high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation. So here’s the second irony, the religious leader’s secret plan and plot to kill Jesus was actually God’s plan for maternity past. It was an old plan. They think they’re doing this in secret, but they don’t actually really know what’s going to happen. Caiaphas had no idea how true his words were when he spoke them. In his words, we see human responsibility and divine sovereignty side by side, right? Because Caiaphas is saying the same exact thing that God’s plan is, but he’s just thinking about the wrong. Event ending Jesus’ life, and God sees so much more the real meaning behind what’s going to happen on Friday. And so we see these two things side by side many times. John puts things out there, and we got to kind of make our own connections. But here he gives it to us. He says, Caiaphas was speaking as a high priest that you’re in prophesying. He was saying the truth. He just didn’t understand the real meaning behind that truth. Because Caiaphas is sick of Jesus. The religious leaders are sick of Jesus. Caiaphas is also sick and of their hemming and hawing about what to do with Jesus. That’s basically what it says here when he says to them, you know, nothing at all like that. That’s not a encouraging thing to say the Sanhedrin. He’s like, You don’t know anything at all, like he’s just frustrated at this point, if you want to save the nation, we need to kill Jesus, we need to get rid of the problem. But he unknowingly is prophesying the plan of God from a passage that he would have known, Isaiah, 53 yet it was the religious leader’s will to crush him, No, yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and to cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, He will see his offspring and prolong his days. And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. It was the Lord’s will to crush Jesus. If Jesus was brought into the Sanhedrin at this moment, just a little while before, he will be brought before them on his trial. But if he was brought in this moment, Caiaphas said these words to Jesus, you know who would agree with him, Jesus. Jesus would say, yep, that’s the plan. We know this because three times in Jesus’ ministry in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus says this three different times to His disciples, that I will be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the teachers of the law I will and then I must be killed. So Jesus knew the plan, their whole secret plan, Jesus already knew it. It wasn’t that secret of a plot, but there was a different meaning in Caiaphas words and the plan of God, because Caiaphas wanted his authority, status and freedom to stay the same, even if it was under Roman rule. At least they kind of got used to that, and they knew what that was like, but Jesus was kind of that whole other. We don’t really know what to do with him. We don’t know what this is going to look like, but God’s plan is, have Jesus go to cross as a substitute, a substitute again, that they would have been very familiar with as religious leaders, a sacrifice being made to God, not just a lamb, but the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He was going to do more than they could ever even think, because he was going to reconcile the world back to God. For those who would believe, Caiaphas view was not only wrong, but it was too small. His view was far too small, and many of them missed the Messiah, the one they had been waiting for since the garden when Adam and Eve gave in to temptation and sin, since the call of Abraham, since leaving Egypt since their exile. In return, he just raised a man from the dead, and they just want to figure out a way to kill him. The intentions of God’s plan for Jesus go to the cross were good the salvation of those who would believe the religious leader’s intention for Jesus was not good, because it was from a place of selfishness, of not wanting to rock the boat. And then we look at our life, and we think about what Jesus did in these moments, the plan that he knew from before time began. And then we think about our life, and we’re gonna face trials. We’re gonna face suffering. There’s more in this life that’s gonna hit us that we’re not expecting. And we’re gonna ask the questions, why is this happening? Doesn’t seem like God is in control. Doesn’t seem like God is in control. There’s no way that anything good could come from this. And I’m sure we’ve all been there in different degrees, in different ways. The question we must ask tonight is, what is the deeper meaning of the life experience I’m going through? What is the deeper meaning of the suffering that I’m enduring now, you may find out the answer to that question in this lifetime, not right away, but maybe at some point, and maybe you won’t get an answer. And if we don’t get the answer, this is the most important question that we get asked, then do I trust God? Do I trust him? Because Jesus trusted him. When Jesus went to the cross, you know, he was trusting that he was going to be raised from the dead. He was trusting that because he’s praying in the garden, right, sweating drops of blood, and he’s saying, take this cup from Me. You. It, but not my will. Your will be done. Any, any, any trust all the way to the cross. He trusts on the cross. He trusts the very last breath that God will raise him from the dead. And so when we’re going through through those things in our life, can we trust him? And I hope your answer is yes. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be hard. We must remember that the plan for Good Friday was hard. The plot to kill Jesus. Nobody understood what was going to happen. The religious leaders had no idea what was going to happen on that cross. The disciples, Jesus followers fought it. Didn’t really understand what was going to happen on that cross, but it was the plan, the plan of God, that brought salvation to the entire world, for everyone who believes. The third irony, look at verses 52 to 53 see what we see here is the one who was seen as a threat to a nation was actually the savior of the whole world. The one who was seen as a threat to the nation was the savior of the whole world. Look at Verse 52 and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one. Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, but he was also dying for those scattered children of God to bring them together to make them one again. The view of who Jesus is and what he came to do was far too small. They just thought it was for the Jewish nation, and God said, No, it’s for the Jews, and it’s also for everyone else, the rest of the world. Jesus talked about this flip back in John 10, or just look on the page before and look at verse 16, to what Jesus says you starting in verse 14, actually, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and My sheep know me just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Here’s verse 16. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. You see the death sentence of Jesus. This plot to kill him was what was needed to bring people from all over the world together as one people with Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ as their leader, with Jesus Christ as their Savior. But this goes beyond just that. God is a missional God. Throughout Scripture, God is a missional God. From the very beginning, he calls Abraham, and he tells him, you will be a blessing for all nations, a blessing for all nations. Would be blessed through him, not just the Jews. God sends His Prophet, Jonah, reluctantly, he does, you know, he doesn’t want to go, but he sends Jonah because God cares for the people, Nineveh, and he tells them, call them to repent, because he has, he cares something. He has compassion for them. God sends His Son Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. He sends Peter to Cornelius home, so that he would hear the good news, that he would follow Jesus, him and his household, and that they would receive the Spirit. And then he sends us out. We’re part of this story. We’re a part of the mission of God to go into the world and be the voice using his words, so that people will hear and respond to the Good Shepherd and come in to the sheep pen. That’s our responsibility, and he uses us. And so this Good Friday, you need to hear this The simple but profound truth that Jesus loves you like let that sink in for a minute. Why are you here on a Friday night? Because Jesus loves you. He gave everything for you. He’s called you his own brothers and sisters of Jesus, children of God, and he did that by substituting himself for us on the cross, Jesus paid it all to make a people of his very own. So the last question we need to reflect on, from this last irony in light of these Grace truths, is, are you telling others the good news so that they will hear His voice and respond? We don’t know who’s going to come. We don’t know who these scattered children of God are. But that’s not our responsibility. Our responsibilities go to go, because what we do know is that some will respond. God has them. They’re scattered somewhere, and so we take it, and we also know they won’t come unless they. Hear it. That’s what Romans tells us. So we need to go out and tell them this good news so that they will hear it and they will respond, and the scattered children of God will be brought together with us here in this room, brought together with for with Christians from around the world as they respond to their good shepherds. Why we made such an effort to encourage you to invite your one to Easter, because we don’t want you then to wait till next Christmas or next Easter, to invite again, but to invite to the next thing and the next thing. Invite them into your life. Invite them into your home. Invite them into this book, so that they can hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and respond to him. And finally, look at verse 53 again. So from that day on, they plotted to take his life, and the plot worked. The plot worked. The religious leaders, including Caiaphas, get exactly what they wanted. As Pilate says, Yes, he will be killed. It looks like the nation is saved. It looks like the temple is saved and they’re going to survive. They have freedom to continue to operate in their positions of authority. Status quo is kept. I believe Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin and others who are opposed to Jesus slept really well on that Friday night. That’s not doesn’t say that in here, but I’m just thinking that okay, because what they thought they just did was squashed a rebellion. Because where are Jesus’ disciples? At this point, they’re gone. They fled. So what do they have left a dead leader in a tomb? I know I would sleep good if I was them. And so they figured, after they come out of their Sabbath, they’re going to be able to get back to the way things used to be with Jesus becoming a distant memory soon, the last irony for them, though, was that Friday’s moment on the cross, when Jesus cried out his last words and breathed his last breath, was just part one of the fulfillment, because Jesus doesn’t just say he’s going to die. He doesn’t say, I’m just going to be killed. Their plans should say, God’s plan, right? God’s ultimate plan, and His goodness and their plans and their evil and selfishness kicked off the greatest moment in the history of the world, if they didn’t kill him. We don’t have Sunday. Something that never happened before, hasn’t happened since, but until we get to part two, we need to remember what happened on that Friday, we need to remember the cost to the life of Jesus, and that’s what we’re going to do as we move into our time at the Lord’s table. Before we do that, I’m going to ask the worship team to come up, and I want to pray as we transition into this time. Dear Heavenly Father, it is amazing to think that you loved us enough to send your son, Jesus Christ, into this world, to save us, to make a way for us to be saved through his body and His blood. It was your plan, Father, Son and Spirit plan from eternity past to save a people who did not deserve it, to save a people who oftentimes take it for granted. And so Lord, in these moments, as we gather around your table, help us to remember exactly what you did on that Good Friday. Help us to worship you rightly in these moments we pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.