The sermon, titled 'One Man Should Die for the People,' explores the narrative from John 11:45-57, focusing on the aftermath of Lazarus's resurrection. Many Jews believed in Jesus after witnessing this miracle, while others reported to the Pharisees, leading to a council meeting. Caiaphas, the high priest, unknowingly prophesied that Jesus's death would be for the nation, highlighting God's greater plan for salvation through a sinless substitute. The Jewish leaders feared losing their power and privileges, prompting their plot to kill Jesus, despite acknowledging His miracles. The sermon emphasizes the necessity of spiritual resurrection for belief, the danger of clinging to worldly positions, and the importance of being guided by God's word rather than expedience.

Our sermon text today is John chapter 11 starting in verse 45 going all the way through the end verse 57. 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. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, What shall we do? For this man 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 nation.

And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all, Nor do you consider that this is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation 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, and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. Then, from that day on, they plotted to put him to death. 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. And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.

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? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, that they might seize him. Let's pray.

Oh Lord God, I pray Father that as we open your word as Jason comes and preaches, Lord that you would fill this room with your glory, that you would let Jason preach with power and authority. Oh God I pray that you would speak through him. Father, I pray for those of us listening, oh Lord, let it not go in one ear and out the other, but let us seek you through this sermon. Oh Father, I pray that you would help us to not be distracted, to set aside things that would distract us, set aside the thoughts of the weak, the cares of the world, and help us Lord to worship you through listening to this sermon. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The title of the sermon this morning is, One man should die for the people. It's a phrase that's lifted right out of the text. And it comes from the lips of the high priest and he has no idea what he is saying. He doesn't mean it like we understand it. And yet, God orders all things and He made this man say this phrase that he didn't understand at all.

It is necessary that one man die for the people. Sinners have to die for their sins unless there would be a sinless substitute who could stand in their place. And this is what rolls off the lips of this wicked high priest in the providence of God. It's just a wonderful occurrence in the Gospel of John. It's hard to leave last week's text, isn't it?

Where Jesus stands outside of this tomb and says, Lazarus, come forth in a loud voice, he cried out, the text says. And out shuffles Lazarus. He has to shuffle because he is still wrapped up in his grave clothes, including his face. His face is wrapped as well. When we left off last week, Jesus had given the instructions that they loose him and let him go.

Unwrap this live man who had been dead in the tomb for four days. Hard to find another text in all of scripture where you have Jesus as fully God, very God, and fully man, very man right there in the same text. He weeps, he enters into the grieving of his friends, and a few minutes later he calls forth a corpse from the cave. So there you have our Savior. The whole point of Lazarus being called forth from the grave is that Jesus is proving that he is who he says he is.

That his atoning work is real. That you can throw yourself upon Him and turn your back on every other hope. How do you know that you have a firm ground to do this? How do you know that you really can let go of every other hope and throw all of your confidence and all of your trust on this one man who made these wild claims in the gospels. It's because he was able to do things like call forth a corpse from the tomb.

You can trust Him. This week our text takes us to the aftermath, what resulted from what happened after all of this. So as we go to our text, let's ask the Lord to help us. Lord Jesus, here we are again. Your people gathered on your day to worship you and to hear from you.

Thank you that anytime we open up our Bibles we hear from you. You have spoken. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you have subjected yourself to the wrath of wicked men. We are beginning to see it more and more. Now we enter the part of the Gospel of John where we will be seeing it rise and rise and rise.

The wrath of wicked men and you willingly subjecting yourself to it. This is our peace. We have no peace unless you are willing to subject yourself to the wrath of sinful men that you did. You willingly laid down your life, you willingly took it up again. So sinners can come to you by faith and be free.

Praise you Lord. Please use this text to help us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well the first subsection of our text that I'd like to read and consider as we work our way little by little through the full text is verses 45 through 48. So hopefully you still have your finger in.

John chapter 11 I'll be reading 45 through 48, follow along. 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 Jesus did. And the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, what shall we do? This man worked 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 nation. Here in these verses, the resurrection of Lazarus is good news to some and bad news to others. So if you are taking notes on your handout and filling in blanks, good, bad, fills in the blanks. The resurrection of Lazarus is good news to some and bad news to others. Now again we see something that we have seen several times in the Gospel of John up to this point which is that Jesus works a sign.

He does something miraculous. Remember just from past studies, the Greek word sign means more than miracle. Don't just think of them as interchangeable. A sign is a miracle that has a meaning beyond the miracle. It's a miracle that teaches.

A sign is a miracle that teaches. It's not just something fantastic, but it's something fantastic that points to a greater truth, that proves a greater truth. Jesus has been doing these signs as we work through the Gospel of John, but they are intended that you would believe that Jesus is who He says He is. That is the thing beyond the miracle that this points to and proves. So as we go through John, we keep seeing signs, miracles that point to a greater truth.

And right after the sign, time and time again, we see there is a division. There is never unity coming out of these miracles. There is always a division. Where some see the sign and get the point. They understand what the miracle is teaching, the truth beyond the miracle, and they embrace it, and they believe in Jesus Christ.

But that's never everyone in any of these accounts. There is this division where some accept and believe and others reject. They are unmoved. In fact, it's worse than unmoved. They are solidified in their opposition to the Lord Jesus.

Our text says that many who saw believed in him. This really is the language of salvation as we work our way through John. There was believing Jesus. We hear what you are saying, we believe what you are saying. But in many places in John it is believing in Jesus.

It is a very different thing. Believing in Jesus is one thing. Believing in Jesus is what saves you. And it really has to do with assenting to the truth, embracing what is said, assenting to the truth, and consenting to the person. Throwing yourself upon, entrusting yourself to the person.

Many who saw the formerly dead body shuffle out of the grave. Many saw that and believed in him. They drew the obvious Conclusion. Is there another conclusion to be drawn from that? The dead body just came out of the grave when he said, Lazarus come forth.

It's not a dead body anymore. It's a shuffling, live body that's still wrapped in the grave clothes. So only one conclusion to draw from that. This man is who he says he is. This man is the Christ.

This man is the Savior that God has promised since sin came into the world, death came into the world, condemnation came into the world through sin. God has been promising to send the Savior. This man is it. That's the one conclusion to be drawn from the dead body coming out of the grave, no longer dead. But others heard the same words.

They heard Jesus praying in last week's text, my Father I know that you always hear me, but I'm praying this prayer so that those who are standing by will know that you sent me. They heard Jesus pray that. And they heard Jesus' command to the dead body come out of that tomb and they saw the same thing. They saw him shuffle out of the grave. They saw his body unwrapped.

They know that it really was Lazarus. They could watch his sisters relate to their live brother and receive their live brother back into the house again. They heard the same words, they saw the same thing, but Instead of believing in Jesus, they went and told his enemies. Make no mistake about what's happening in the text. When they go to tell the Pharisees, they're going to report to his sworn enemies.

Everyone knows the position of the Pharisees. If you haven't learned that by John 11, you are a really slow student. Everyone knows who these people are and what they think of Jesus and that they are in mortal opposition to the Lord Jesus. These are the people going to report to his sworn enemies. Friends, The right words don't save people.

The right actions don't save people. Seeing something amazing doesn't save people. All of the people who didn't believe here heard the right words, perfect words, words that are better and more pure than you'll ever be able to string together. They saw the right things. They observed the Lord Jesus and what He was doing, how He was relating with these grieving sisters.

And they saw something more amazing than you will ever lay eyes on as long as you live. I'm confident of that. And maybe Jesus will come back and that will prove not to be true. That's fine with me. That works for me.

And yet, there's a division. I heard the same words, I saw the same thing. The dead body, formerly dead body, I keep saying dead body, he's not dead anymore, he's shuffling out of the tomb. Some believe, some don't believe. We are spiritually dead in our natural condition.

It takes more than the right words and the right actions or even seeing something astoundingly amazing to save you again. You are dead. You have to be spiritually raised from the dead. It takes the power of God to raise you from the dead. That is the only way anyone has ever been saved, is saved now, will ever be saved.

In Luke chapter 16, Jesus speaks of a beggar who dies. The rich man at whose gate the beggar had begged for years and years also dies. The beggar goes to be in paradise with Father Abraham. The rich man is in torment. He was a wicked rich man.

The rich man begs Abraham to send someone back to his live brothers, lest they come to this awful place of eternal torment. Here's what Abraham says, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. Your brothers wouldn't believe the risen man. They wouldn't believe him. If I granted your request, Abraham says, and I sent back someone from the grave, if they haven't believed Moses and the prophet, they won't believe the man shuffling forth out of the grave.

This is exhibit A. This is exhibit A. It's literally being, that is literally being fulfilled in our eyes and our text. The Pharisees hear of this astounding thing. It happened in Bethany.

It's on the doorstep of Jerusalem. It's less than a two mile walk from the gates of Jerusalem. They have access to the man who was dead, they have access to his sisters, and they have access to a multitude of eyewitnesses, but they harden themselves in their unbelief. That's unbelievable. Unless, of course, your brain's been trained by the Bible.

And then it's very believable. We are dead! We're dead! In our sins and transgressions. We're not just sick.

We're needing to go down to the drug store and get a little spiritual balm for our spiritual sickness. We are dead in sins and transgressions. In response, the chief priests and the Pharisees gather a council. They huddle. Who are the chief priests?

The MacArthur Study Bible has this saying that the chief priests are former high priests and members of high priestly families. So at this point there have been multiple high priests. If you were a priest in one of these especially privileged priestly families, you would be a chief priest. What do we know about this council? This is almost certainly the Sanhedrin which was not a council, it's the council.

It's 70 plus one. 70 of the chief priests and the Pharisees, mostly chief priests, but a few Pharisees that are influential. That's important because the chief priests, the high priests and their extended families were almost exclusively Sadducees. So you have Sadducees and Pharisees. The people actually esteem Pharisees more than Sadducees, but the Sadducees actually have the power in Jerusalem.

So you have this group of 70 chief priests and Pharisees plus one, plus the high priest. And what we have in our text fits that description exactly. You have a gathering of chief priests and Pharisees presided over by the high priest. This is almost certainly the Sanhedrin. Although you can't be absolutely certain because of the words used.

It's probably the Sanhedrin. In a conquered nation, this is the highest Jewish authority that there is. The Romans are above them because they have the armies. The highest Jewish authority would be the Sanhedrin, presided over by the high priest, which this Council is. This is the Council almost certainly that will preside over the condemnation of Jesus in a very short period of time.

These are the same men they are meeting now. They will meet again to condemn Jesus. What is said when they gather is breathtaking. I really want to take what they say when they gather phrase by phrase because it takes your breath away the things that they say. First they say, what shall we do?

In other words, something has got to be done. Why? Why? Because a man was raised from the dead. There needs to be a counter action because a man has been raised from the dead?

Think about that. The resurrection of Lazarus requires counteraction. Like I said in the weekly email, put this in, you know you need to rethink your life choices when file. You know you need to rethink your life choices when you believe that the raising of a dead man and him being restored to his grieving relatives is bad news that needs to be counteracted. Alright, you need to rethink your life choices.

You find yourself in that position. Next they say, for this man works many signs. I think about that. Jesus doesn't have any worse enemies than the men who are gathered together, conspiring against him here. And they say, this man works many signs.

Think about this acknowledgement. Here's what J.C. Ryle says, even our Lord's worst enemies confess that our Lord did miracles and many miracles. Can we doubt that they would have denied the truth of his miracles if they could? Any doubt there in your mind?

That these men would have denied his miracles if they could have denied his miracles. Rao continues, but they do not seem to have attempted it. They were too many, too public, too thoroughly witnessed for them to dare deny them. There were too many miracles to deny them. They were too public to deny them.

They were too thoroughly witnessed to deny them. These are his enemies. It's not his disciples saying he does many miracles. It's the chief priests and the Pharisees who by the end of the text will be sworn to kill him. Now finally we get to the heart of the problem, to the heart of why.

While many believed in Jesus and embraced Him as the Messiah because they saw the formerly dead bodies shuffle out of the tomb, these other men see it as bad news. We get to the heart of that in verse 48. Look again. They say in this council, if we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation. They believe that not taking action will result in Jesus being overwhelmingly embraced as the Messiah.

So here's the problem. Here's what cannot happen. Letting him be, letting him keep doing things that prove he is who he says he is, so that he's overwhelmingly embraced by the people as their messiah. And then what? Then the Romans come with their armies to put down the rebellion.

The Messiah is the King. The Messiah is the King. As soon as they embrace this man as the Messiah, they are going to claim him for King. They already tried to do that in John chapter 6. Do you remember that?

Jesus knew that they were about to take Him by force and make Him King. The minute that the masses decide this is the Savior that God promised that they are going to take Him as their King, and here will come the Roman armies. And then the Roman armies and then what? The Sanhedrin will lose its place of relative autonomy and privilege. Under the Romans they were given relative autonomy.

That's why it's not just autonomy. It's relative autonomy. They are given freedoms by a foreign power, and privileges by the foreign power. Which means that The members of the Sanhedrin will lose their relative autonomy and privilege. And the nation will cease to exist in any sort of meaningful way.

Does that sound familiar? This is exactly what happens in 70 AD. So now we're fast forwarding 40 years from the time of John chapter 11. The Jews rebel. The Roman armies come.

Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, records A million people die in Jerusalem. A million people, a million Jews, almost all civilians, die in Jerusalem. And the temple is raised to the ground, Meaning broken down so that one stone is not on another. You know why? In judgment for what they did to our Lord Jesus.

The thing that they fear they brought upon themselves. This text is so ironic. The thing that they say they fear, they actually bring upon their own heads by doing what they promise to do in this text. So the resurrection of Lazarus is good news to some. They believe in him.

They embrace the Lord Jesus as their Messiah. And they are saved. But it's bad news to these chief priests and these Pharisees. Because their personal autonomy, personal privileges are at stake and they cannot part with them. You see that's what's happening in this text.

These are men who cannot part with their privileges. Even in the face of a Messiah who's raising the dead, I can't part with my privileges. This is the insanity of the unregenerate heart. You'll sell your birthright for a bowl of stew. You will.

You will. In your own regenerative state. Next section. I'll be reading verses 49 through 52. Follow along.

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. Not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. In this section we have the unwitting prophecy of Caiaphas. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's unwitting.

Meaning he's prophesying that he doesn't even, he may not even realize that he's prophesying, but he definitely doesn't understand his own prophecy. The unwitting prophecy of Caiaphas. In the Old Testament, high priests served for life. So there are actually few of them in the Old Testament. There are not that many high priests in the Old Testament because they served for long periods of time.

They served as long as they were alive. But under Roman rule, the high priests served at the pleasure of Rome. If you played nice with Roman authority, they might let you continue. If you were problematic at all, they had the authority to just replace you, and they did so. So, Annas served as high priest from 7 to 14 AD, meaning roughly when Jesus was 7 to 14 years old.

Early life for Jesus, Annas was the high priest. Then after Annas there were three others in quick succession. Who were they? I don't know, I don't care, it has no bearing on the text. But it proves the point that if the Romans wanted a new high priest, the Romans installed a new high priest.

So Annas from 7 to 14, then three others in quick succession about a year apiece. And then in 1880, so roughly when Jesus was 18, this is not exact, but roughly when Jesus was 18, Annas' son-in-law Caiaphas became high priest. And He was high priest from 18 to 36 AD. This is well after Jesus' death. A few years after Jesus' death.

And he presided over Jesus' condemnation. He's actually the longest serving high priest in the first century. So from Jesus' birth until the year 100, he is the longest serving high priest. So this is a very significant high priest, even among those high priests who are coming and going, because the Romans can do as they like. Overwhelmingly, prominent priests were Sadducees, who Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, were famously rude.

They were notoriously rude. Here, Caiaphas says, you know nothing at all. That fits right with what Josephus says. This is the Sanhedrin. A few chapters earlier they're talking about just normal Jews, the great unwashed masses, you know, and they're pouring scorn on them.

But this is the Sanhedrin, the high priest says, to the Jewish leaders you know nothing at all. Rude. Josephus says Sadducees are like that. Caiaphas is like that. Here is what we see Caiaphas doing in our text.

Mobilizing the Jewish leaders for decisive, deadly action. That's what everything he says in this text is about. Mobilizing these leaders, galvanizing them, unifying them, rallying them for decisive, deadly action. The others are worrying. They are wringing their hands.

What should we do? Cuy of this says, grow up and kill this man. Grow up and kill this man. That's what's happening in our text. He's galvanizing the Sanhedrin around decisive deadly action.

Stop worrying, stop wringing your hands. Act! Kill this man! It is better to kill this man than that the Roman armies descend upon us and we lose our place of privilege. As the current high priest, God put prophetic words in his mouth.

Caiaphas thought he understood what he was saying, but Caiaphas did not understand at all what he was saying. God put those words in his mouth. John the Gospel writer is telling us that. Did Caiaphas even understand that what he said was prophetic? I think it's hard to say.

He might have understood that what he was saying was prophetic, but not understood the meaning of the prophecy. I think it's possible from the text, it's possible that he didn't even understand that the words coming out of his mouth were prophetic, but John the Gospel writer identifies them as such. It doesn't really matter. First, there's nothing in history that would tell us it was customary for the high priest to issue an annual prophecy. If you read the text, the first time you read it Before you study it, it sort of sounds that way.

It sounds like maybe the high priest would issue an annual prophecy. He was the high priest that year and this was his prophecy. There's nothing in history that would support that at all. There's nothing in the New Testament that would support that at all. Secondly, there's definitely precedent for God putting prophetic words into a wicked mouth.

There are numerous examples of that in the Old Testament. The classic one is probably Balaam. When you read of Balaam in Numbers 22 through 24, the words that God put in his mouth are so good you're tempted to think this man is a believer. This is a born-again man. But Balaam is mentioned three times in the New Testament and you can't go to those those three commentaries on numbers 22 through 24 and see what New Testament writers said about Balaam and say he was a born-again man he was not was not a born again man.

God put God's words into a wicked mouth. That happens. God is king. He rules. If he wants you to say something, you will say something.

He will say exactly the words that he puts into your mouth. Caiaphas intended this. It is better that Jesus be put to death, one man die, and the nation be spared. Not to mention our positions of privilege. That's better.

Better that Jesus died. Is it the spilling of innocent blood? Oh, grow up is what Caiaphas would say. Grow up. We're facing serious things here.

I don't even think he would answer that question. Caiaphas, do you think that would be the spilling of innocent blood? Grow up. We're facing Roman armies here. Grow up and kill this man.

It is expedient. What does expedient mean? It means it's convenient and practical to get to an outcome. We need this outcome. God, the giver of these prophetic words in his mouth, intended this, and he intended it from eternity past.

The only hope for sinners is for an innocent substitute to die in their place. So he meant, let's kill Jesus and save ourselves. It's convenient and practical to get to this outcome. God meant There is hope for sinners in the death of a substitute. Sinners don't have to die without hope.

Sinners don't have to die under condemnation. God will Accept one in your place, the innocent dying for the guilty. He will accept that. Not one man dying for national Israel, one man dying for spiritual Israel, the holy nation. Josh read it, 1 Peter 2, writing to Christians, You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.

You are not a people, you are a people now. You had not obtained mercy, you have obtained mercy now. You've obtained mercy now. In our text the picture is unwittingly prophesying about the reality. I missed that until this morning and then I was thinking about it.

Wait a minute. This is an Israelite prophesying about spiritual Israel. Outside. And not just Israelites but gathering the scattered. This is about the grafting in of Gentiles, not the people of God, way outside the borders of national Israel being gathered in.

This is the picture that the high priest, every high priest up until Jesus is just a placeholder, just keeping the seat warm for the high priest. They're just a picture of the reality. When you see Caiaphas, the high priest, he's just a placeholder. He's keeping Jesus' seat warm as the great sympathetic High Priest. God put words in his mouth about the reality.

National Israel is the picture. Those who repent and believe are the reality. Caiaphas is the picture. The Lord Jesus Christ is the reality. The last section, 53-57.

The last section, 53-57. Then from that day on they plotted to put him to death. 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. The Passover of the Jews was near, and Many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 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? Now both The chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it. That they might seize him. This final section we have plotting to kill Jesus.

If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's plotting. Plotting to kill Jesus. This meeting of the Council, probably the Council, the Sanhedrin probably, represented a point of no return for these men. They hardened themselves in a commitment to kill Jesus. From that day on, there will be no more change in their purpose.

They plotted to put him to death. Jesus understood exactly what had happened and was happening and he withdrew with his disciples until the Passover. The lamb who takes away the sins of the world cannot die before the Passover. Commentators speculate on where this village, Ephraim, was. The modern commentators have settled on a place.

There is a current town there. They say it's about 12 miles from Jerusalem. Older commentators aren't nearly as unified about where this place is. The speculation just proves the point. It's a very, very out of the way place.

That's the whole point. He's going to a very small, very out of the way place until it's time for him to die. Now, if you read the book of Leviticus, it seems like there is an endless list of conditions that can make you ceremonially unclean. Meaning unfit for the temple worship that is prescribed in the Old Testament law of God. So the Old Testament law calls for you to worship at certain times in the temple and there are certain things that will make you ceremonially unclean for that.

For instance, if you touch a dead body, you cannot go into the temple in that condition. There are omissions from the male body, there are omissions from the female body that will make you ceremonially unclean, unfit for temple worship prescribed in the Old Testament. There are various skin conditions, You've read those chapters, chapter after chapter, of skin conditions that make you unclean and ceremonially unclean and unfit to go into the temple to worship God as He prescribed. So if you found yourself in one of those conditions, you could only participate in the Passover if you went and were ceremonially purified. So you're ceremonially unclean.

You have to do things to become ceremonially purified so that you can take part in the Passover. So in the days leading up to the Passover celebration, the population of Jerusalem would begin to increase with all these people who had to come to be ceremonially purified so that they could participate in the Passover. This year, There's a buzz. Will Jesus come to the Passover or won't He? Because the Word has gone out from the leaders that if you know where He is, you should report where He is.

So that they can apprehend him. To use a term from current events, they have weaponized the population of Jerusalem. They've turned every person in Jerusalem into a potential informant to recognize Jesus and say he is here so that they can apprehend him. This brings us right into Passover week. Next won't, we would begin chapter 12.

So what we've decided to do next week is to have a public reading of chapters 12 through 17. So We'll have an extended public reading of Scripture next week. It will be great. I love those. Those are the purest words that ever come from behind this pulpit.

Let's do it. Then I'll give a brief, maybe half hour introduction to those chapters. In chapter 12 is the triumphal entry, last week of Jesus' life leading into the crucifixion. So it really does represent a shift in the Gospel of John. So We'll read chapters 12 through 17, have a brief introduction.

Applications, four of them. One is the title, one man should die for the people. One man should die for the people. If sinners are to have any hope in this world, One man should die for the people. If sinners there are to have any hope in this world, one man should die for the people.

But it can't be any man. I can't die for you. I would have to die for my own sins. I'm defiled in every part. God would never accept me as a substitute for you.

This was and is prophetic. One man should die for the people. For the people to have any hope. For sinners who deserve eternal condemnation and punishment for their sins. That's how great and glorious God is.

It's all wrapped up in the worth and value of God. You say, oh, that's not just sins in one lifetime. Through a million ages you have to be punished. You don't understand the worth and glory of God. Your treason is small to you because you don't understand how valuable God is.

You deserve it for your sins. And yet, God has made a way. He has said He will accept the innocent dying for the guilty. You're guilty, you know you're guilty. There's hope in this world because one man died for the people.

All who repent and believe are saved. The offer is extended to you again today. If you've not repented and believed the Gospel, today is the day for you. Why wait another minute, you fool? Don't wait another minute.

Two. When you share your faith, when you share your faith, very consciously rely on God. When you share your faith, be before the Lord. Sharing your faith. Oh God.

Please enter in. I'm talking to a dead man. I'm talking to a dead woman. I couldn't possibly string together the right words or do the right thing. I couldn't even show them the most amazing thing and have them convert and be born again.

You must raise them from the dead. When we're sharing our faith, we should have that frame of mind going on in the background even while our mouths are talking. We should very consciously rely on God. The dead have to be raised. Can you do that?

Me neither. Only ever cling to one position, your eternal position. In our text we have men clinging to a position. They are overlooking the raising of the dead in order to hold on to their privileges. They are clinging to their position.

They like it. They will do anything to maintain it. Even for Christians, even for Christians, these men weren't Christians in our text, no doubt about that. Even for Christians, there's a temptation to compromise, to cling to positions and privileges. That's not isolated to unbelievers.

Don't do it. Cling to one position. That is your eternal position. Do not make compromises to cling to your privileges. Don't let them go.

You'll be happier. You think, oh, my happiness depends on it. That's not true. Your happiness depends on God. With knowing Him, with fellowshipping in Him, it's so much sweeter than anything the world can set before us.

Those shiny little things the world offers to us, they never deliver on their promises. Never, ever, ever! Number four, finally. Never allow yourself to be governed by expedience. We are people of the book.

This governs Christians, not expedients. These men allow themselves to be governed by expedient. It is expedient. It is expedient for us. Those words are so damning.

It is expedient for us. It is convenient and practical to achieve this outcome for us. Be governed by the word of God and let the chips fall where they may. This is what mature Christians do. And we can all see where we've fallen short.

Just means we're not mature. Not that mature. We need to grow in maturity. Mature Christians are governed by the Word of God and they let the chips fall where they may. They let what happens happen knowing that God is King, He can make it work out fine.

That's it. Brothers and sisters in Christ, God is King. He can make it work out fine. Fine might mean you get martyred. You know what?

You'll look back from heaven and say, that was a momentary affliction that is not worthy to be compared with this, you will. That's true. If the Bible is true, that's true. God, thank you for your Word. I pray that you would bless it to our hearing and that you would press these truths upon us.

Don't let us escape them. Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.