Tonight we are going to look at unbelief and opposition to Christ. John 11: 47-57 gives a good lesson on this. It’s a lesson that needs to be studied in detail. Let’s begin in v. 47.
READ v. 47. Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead. Scripture tells us that some believed and some rejected it. In v. 46 it tells us that some of those who rejected it went to the Pharisees to report what Jesus had done.
So the Sanhedrin met to discuss Jesus and to decide what to do about Him. This was an official meeting of the nation’s leaders, including religious leaders. The Sanhedrin was the ruling body, both the governing council and supreme court of the Jews. It had 71 members and was presided over by the High Priest. But it only took a quorum of 23 to pass the laws of the nation. Its membership was made up of Pharisees, Sadducees, Teachers of the law (Scribes or lawyers), and elders who were lay leaders from among the people.
The legal power of the Sanhedrin to pass the death sentence was restricted about 20 years before the trial of Jesus. But they did retain the right of excommunication. To secure Jesus’ death, they were forced by law to appeal to the Romans for the death sentence.
These leaders, the Sanhedrin, were the very ones who should have been leading the people to God and giving moral and spiritual direction to the nation. Yet, here they were determining what to do about Jesus. The scene is pathetic and ironic.
There was Jesus, the Son of God, standing right before them, having come to reveal God to all men everywhere. There were the many miraculous signs which Jesus had done to prove that He was truly the Son of God. There were the leaders, the very ones who should have been rejoicing and receiving Him, the ones who recognized and acknowledged His many miraculous signs and His great teaching—so great that everyone was about to follow Him, yet they were the ones who were taking the lead in rejecting and opposing Him.
This scene is repeated every time a person deliberately rejects and opposes Christ. A person who hears and sees the works of Christ should rejoice and receive Him, not reject and oppose Him and His salvation.
READ 48. Here we see the cause of the unbelief and opposition. The basic reason was selfish fear. Self-centered fear, the fear of losing something, causes man to reject and oppose others. Three things in particular cause the leaders to fear Jesus.
1. The fear of losing their esteem, recognition, and following. If the leaders lost the people, they would have lost the same as any man who loses his circle of attention (friends, fellow-workers, neighbors, whomever.)
2. There was the fear of losing their place, position, influence, and authority. If they lost their place, they would have again lost their job, livelihood, security, comfort, power, authority, and wealth.
3. There was the fear of losing their nation.
It’s a man’s selfishness that causes him to cling both to himself and to his possessions. Man wants to control all he is and has. He wants to do his own thing as he wills and desires. He wants to have no interference in his life and desires, or as little as possible.
When Jesus comes along demanding that a person change by denying himself and giving all he is and has to meet the desperate needs of a lost and starving world—man rejects and opposes Jesus. Man is unwilling to deny himself, unwilling to live a life that is totally sacrificial.
READ 49-53. Here we see the conclusion of unbelief and opposition. Note 4 points.
1. The decision to oppose Jesus was made by the High Priest himself, Caiaphas, the highest religious leader in the nation. The very person who should have been leading the others to Jesus was suggesting that everyone reject and oppose Him.
How tragic it is that religious positions sometimes become political. How tragic it is that men reject Christ for the things of this world. How tragic it is that men exchange eternity for a few short years.
2. The second point is that the conclusion suggested by the High Priest was that Jesus should be sacrificed for the people. The people were following Jesus in such numbers that the leaders feared the Romans might conclude that Jesus was arousing the people to riot. The Romans would move in and disperse the people, taking away even what little liberty they had. The Romans might blame the present leadership and remove them from power.
So the thought proposed was that it was better for Jesus to die than for the people to perish. Jesus should be sacrificed and killed in order to save the people.
3. The third point is that there was a big mystery. The High Priest was being used as a spokesman by God: note it says in v. 51, “He did not say this on his own.” He was predicting the death of Jesus Christ. He proclaimed that Jesus should die for the people and be sacrificed in order to save the people.
The idea of substitution was the suggestion: that Jesus would die FOR the Jewish nation. He was to die to save both Jew and Gentile, all the scattered children of God.
4. The fourth point is that the decision was made and Jesus was rejected. They wanted nothing to do with Him from that day on. The idea is that from that very moment on, they were set on doing away with Him.
READ v. 54. Now we see the response of Jesus to the unbelief and opposition. He withdrew from those who rejected Him. (Something unbelievers should consider today.) He went away and didn’t plead with them anymore. He no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. He gave them up to their own desires.
That should tell us something. The Lord’s Spirit doesn’t always strive or contend with men. Jesus even told His disciples to turn their backs on the rejecters. So Jesus, at this point, concentrated on and drew closer to His disciples.
READ 55-57. Finally tonight, we see the providence of God in moving events despite unbelief and opposition.
1. God controlled the time. It was the Passover season, a significant fact. The Feast symbolized the removal of sins. Note that while the people were celebrating the Passover Feast, the leaders were seeking to commit the most heinous crime: the murder of the Son of God Himself.
2. God stirred the people’s interest. Pilgrims flooded into Jerusalem by the hundreds of thousands during the Passover season. The picture is that of people buzzing about wondering and asking if Jesus would come to the Feast. Note that the people actually kept looking for Jesus. God took even the rejection of evil men and worked it out to cause others to seek His Son.
And God still takes the rejection and opposition of men and uses it to stir interest in His Son. Throughout history some of the greatest movements and revivals of Christianity have been the result of persecution and attempts to stamp out the name of Christ. A man’s rejection is often used by God to stir salvation in others.
3. Lastly, God controlled man’s devilish plots. He kept the people from cooperating with the leaders and betraying His Son. No man can move against the name of Christ or against the followers of Christ until God is ready. Although the world is corrupt and evil, God controls the times of His Son and His Son’s followers. Not a hair of their head can be touched until God is ready to use the trial and persecution for good.
I back that up with Matthew 10: 28-33 which says,
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”
