What Shall We Do With This Man?

We are finishing up with John chapter 11 today. Last week we saw how Jesus wept at Lazarus’ grave, commanded the people to roll the stone away from the tomb, and then raised Lazarus from the dead. We talked about how it was a picture of how Jesus can take things that are dead and decaying in our lives and heal and restore these things and bring life to them. We just need to be willing to bring Jesus to that tomb and roll that stone away by faith giving Jesus access to these areas of our lives.

At the end of chapter 11, we see that John is focusing on the end of Jesus' public ministry. What John recorded in chapters 1-11 took place over several years, chapter 12 takes place in one week and chapters 13 - 19 over a matter of hours. We are slowing down and focusing on the whole purpose for why Jesus came.

We have also come to the end of the seven signs which John had organized his gospel around. Throughout John ‘s gospel his goal in writing it has been clear. Numerous times he states that he writes these things so that “you may know, so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, He is the Son of God and that you may have life in His name.” Everything he has recorded in his gospel shows us who Jesus is and the reasons why we can believe He is the Messiah. These signs have shown us that He has power over sin, over the natural realm, over the spiritual realm and over death itself.

The question we are left with as we have read through these 11 chapters is what will we do with Jesus?

Let’s turn to John 11:45-54

45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.

47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council meeting, and they were saying, “What are we doing in regard to the fact that this man is performing many signs? 48 If we let Him go on like this, all the people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take over both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor are you taking into account that it is in your best interest that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish instead.” 51 Now he did not say this on his own, but as he was high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation; 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.

54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.

As with each major sign, Jesus' words and deeds revealed where the hearts of the people were with God. The question is: What effect did His miraculous works have on people? Some were:

? Thoroughly convinced

? Thoughtless

? Threatened

1. Thoroughly convinced

The first group were thoroughly convinced who Jesus was after speaking with Mary and witnessing how Jesus raised the dead man, Lazarus, from the grave. They witnessed God’s visible splendor, His glory (cf. vv. 4, 40). These are the ones who took to heart all they heard and saw and began to follow Jesus. Even though the caliber of their faith is not described here, the writer declared it to be genuine faith in the Lord, the same faith that Martha and Mary had. We know that they did not vacillate or simply fade from the scene like the “many of the fickle followers” at the first Passover (2:23), or those in Samaria (4:39), or those who just heard the Word at the festival of lights (7:31; 8:30), or even those who saw Him on other side of the Jordan (10:42). Rather, they were thoroughly convinced and continued to follow Him even to Jerusalem.

What is interesting in this passage is that John doesn’t focus on Lazarus. There are no recorded words from Lazarus and so we don’t know what he experienced while he was dead, nor do we know how long he lived after he was resuscitated. In fact, we have no idea what Mary said to the people who came to her about the miracle concerning Lazarus. What we do know is that this miracle was a testimony of who Jesus is as the Christ, the son of the living God and these people were now absolutely, thoroughly convinced. This is why John doesn’t point people to the miracle or to Lazarus, but to Christ Himself.