The Sovereignty of Unbelief

Slideshow for this message is available

Introduction

Two weeks ago we looked at the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus.
This is one of the few miracles in the Bible that is recorded where God intentionally contrives to make the miracle itself more dramatic.
You will recall that Jesus had fled to Perea and he gets word that Lazarus was sick. And Jesus says, "This is not a sickness that leads to death." And that runner presumably carries that message back to Mary and Martha. Your brother, even though he looks terribly ill has a sickness that does not lead to death.
Then we have the strange words. Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus; therefore, he stayed in the place where he was two additional days.
And sometime during those intervening days Lazarus dies.
And for Mary and Martha, this death represents an incredible faith crisis. They have built their entire lives upon the understanding that whatever Jesus says is true. The WORDS of Jesus are the WORDS of God and therefore can always be counted on. Jesus said very clearly, “This is not a sickness that leads to death.”
And yet here I am staring at a dead body. All five senses confirm that Lazarus is dead.

I see the drooping face indicating that the link between the brain and the involuntary muscles of the face are no longer activated. I see the change in skin color from rosy red to gray which indicates that the blood has stopped circulating.
I feel his cold body. I feel the stiffening of his body as rigamortis sets in.
I smell his bowels. I smell the beginning phases of decomposition.
I cannot hear a single noise that indicates life. No breath. No heart. Just silence. Not the slightest movement.

You have this horrific collision of realities. Which is more real? Which is more true?
Either the words of Jesus are true - that this is not a sickness that leads to death.
Or
The information reported by my senses is true - Lazarus is dead?
Both cannot be true. One of these trusted anchors in my life has betrayed me. Either it’s my eyes or its Jesus. Given these two options which would you choose?
How often do our eyes, ears, nose, touch betray us? Those have come to be pretty trusted companions. They rarely fail us. They rarely report incorrectly.
On the other hand, how frequently do people let us down. How often have you leaned heavily on a person only to have them disappoint? What’s the more likely explanation of what I’m experiencing?
And this produces a crisis of faith. A crisis of faith is defined as a person moving from a place of belief and faith to a place of doubt. If this Word of Jesus isn’t true, then what else is also not true?
But everything resolves when Jesus commands the stone to be rolled away and speaks, “Lazarus, come forth!” and the decomposition process reverses itself and out hops Lazarus wrapped in cloths.
Mary, Martha, what’s the lesson? BELIEVE! Believe Jesus no matter what your eyes tell you. Believe Jesus no matter how confusing your interpretation of events are. Jesus can be trusted. - Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. Believe it. - All of Jesus’ Words are yes and amen. Believe it.
The Lesson is clear: Whatever Jesus says: Believe it. It almost makes you want to break out in spontaneous round of applause.
The Response.
This miracle is one of 8 signs that John gives us. We are told that the reason we are given these 8 signs is so that by observing them you will believe. But here’s what’s interesting: one of the central features of each of these signs is how it created unbelief in those who witnessed them. Last week we ended on a comma.
John 11

In other words, some, instead of believing, ran to the Pharisees and ratted him out. They knew the Pharisees wouldn’t like what just went down and they wanted to be the first to be congratulated in delivering the news.
Now how can it be that some believed, but others went and betrayed him to the Pharisees? How can it be that some fall on their faces and worship and others pick up pitch forks?
How can you have such violently different reactions to an indisputable demonstration of a divinity? This is all perfectly explainable if you understand one key thing:
To illustrate this interpretive key, let me give you an analogy from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the rings.
In you’ve read the novel, Gollum is this creature who has owned this powerful ring for thousands of years and he has been utterly destroyed by it. It is all he cares about it.

He talks to it.

He calls it his precious.

He strokes it in the dark.

His single goal in life is to protect it so that nothing can threaten it and nothing can ever take it from him.
And his love of the ring creates all these paradoxes. For example,

Even though the ring gives him power, his obsession with it causes him to become weak.

The more he stares at its beauty the more ugly he becomes.
- The more he believes that possessing it will give him freedom, the more it enslaves him.
- He’s totally, utterly, completely destroyed by his ’savior.’

Now you wouldn’t immediately know this by looking at him. Gollum appears to be a pretty innocent little creature, you might even say playful and cute until his ring is taken away. And then all of the sudden this hideous dark shadow emerges from within. The fangs come out. The blood-thirsty eyes narrow. And he’s willing to destroy anything that threatens his precious.
The Bible calls this sort of thing an idol. God is supposed to be in that ultimate place and if you put something else there, both God and it will destroy you.
Here’s the one key thing that unlocks the whole passage: The Pharisees had an idol. The Pharisees were guarding their precious. Everything is fine as long as they have what they want but then Jesus comes along. And Jesus always threatens idols. Jesus’ mere existence threatens anything we dare to call precious. Jesus sees that idol and stares us down and says, that thing is killing you. It’s sucking away your joy. He says, "Here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to take the place of that inferior god but in order to do so, I have to break the neck of that thing that is sucking the life out of you.
And what we will discover in this passage is a SEVERE warning. Don’t be threatened by Jesus’ attack on your idols. Confess your sin before its too late. Confess your idolatry before you are destroyed.If we refuse to heed that warning there are two things that will happen and one thing that will not happen.
Here are the two things that will happen. You will destroy others and you will destroy yourself. And here’s the one thing that will not happen. You will not destroy God’s plan. So that’s our outline for today. Let’s look at each of these points in turn.

Now let’s jump back to the narrative to the point where the Pharisees and Sadducees first hear the news of Lazarus’ resurrection. You could imagine the Pharisees and Sadducees sitting around large tables with their Torah scrolls sprawled out debating some nuanced, esoteric point. *And in comes this messenger panting, his hand on the door frame steadying himself as he catches his breath, “Guys, you are not going to believe this but you know Jesus, the troublemaker?* He just raised a guy named Lazarus from the dead. And get this: Lazarus was four days dead and was in the tomb. He rolled away the stone and said Lazarus come forth and out comes the hopping body. I saw it with my own eyes. I smelled it. You guys need to do something. Word is spreading like wildfire.”

The irony here is so thick. Imagine you were a scout for the Chicago Bulls. “This man is the best basketball player we’ve ever seen. He performs many miraculous moves.” What’s the obvious next step? Recruit him. That’s what a scout does. He looks for talent.
The Pharisees are religious scouts looking for Messiah. This man performs many indisputable signs. What are we to do? Believe. But instead they say.

Ah, we’ve found the precious. We’ve discovered the idol. Instead of belief we see fangs and claws. Why, because their place and their nation are being threatened. There’s the idol. Now it all makes sense. The source code has been cracked.
It’s interesting how this is worded because there is a meaning and then there is a meaning behind the meaning. John is a master at the double meaning: “The Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
So on the surface, there’s one meaning. It was the job of the local prefect, in this case Pilate, to keep the peace. If the Jews are making trouble, Rome will descend with merciless force and eliminate the trouble. Jesus’ miracle working (whether he intends it or not) is going to arouse the attention of Rome. So on the surface this is a political statement, “The Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.” The Romans will come and take away our place (the temple) and our nation (the people)."
But a layer beneath is the more sinister meaning. We claim to care about the people but what we really care about is our power over the people. If Rome comes sweeping in, they will take away our place (meaning our political/religious position of power) and our nation (the people our position allows us to control).

They love the control they exercise over the massess.

They love the adulation of the crowds and respect.

They love the lucrative salary that attends that position.

They love their precious

This is one of the key signs of idolatry, where we hide behind the respectable to protect that which is not respectable. So for example,

A man who idolizes his image on Social media will say, “I’m just catching up on the news.”
A person who idolizes money will say, “Just making some wise investments for my kids future.”
A person who idolizes leisure will say, “Just taking some time off to be with the family.”

The Pharisees idolize their position of power but hide beneath, "We need to eliminate Jesus because the Romans will come and destroy God’s temple and God’s people.
Power and control is the idol. Jesus threatens that idol. Solution: destroy Jesus. That’s our first point. “Guarding your precious will destroy others.” They are willing to destroy Messiah in order to keep their precious.

Presiding over the Sanhedrin was Caiaphas.
Now again, the double meaning is so masterful. Let’s start with Caiphas’ meaning. One man needs to die for the people. In other words, "Either Jesus dies and we save Judea from the wrath of Rome or the whole nation dies."
This is a purely POLITICAL STATEMENT.
You have to understand that in recent years, they have experienced legitimate wrath from Rome. Let me give you just one case in point. Remember in the Christmas story, Joseph flees to Egypt because Herod was trying to kill baby Jesus. Well it says that when he heard that Herod had died he came home but then he heard that Archeleaus had been installed in his place he feared, and being warned in a dream he went to Nazareth.
Why was Joseph afraid of Archelaus? You know what’s behind that? Archeleus, in a demonstration of force, had killed 3000 animated Jewish demonstrators and in so doing cancelled passover. They are legitimately fearful of Rome.
And Jesus is legitimately causing a stir making this a very real possibility.
If that’s the case, let me ask you a question, "Why didn’t the Pharisees and Sadducees destroy Jesus a long time ago?" For chapters and chapters they have expressed their abject hatred of him. If they hate him and he’s a political liability why not lynch him? They have wanted him dead since chapter 8. Why are they dragging their feet?
Answer the crowds love him. The crowds adore Jesus and the religious leaders know that if they destroy Jesus, that will massively destroy their credibility.
So you see Ciaphas is solving the dilemma. The question on the floor is this:

If we kill Jesus, the crowds will hate us.

If we let Jesus live, then Rome will hate us.

Which is worse? Ciaphas breaks in, "You guys are idiots. This is a no brainer. If the crowds hate us, we suffer a PR setback. If Rome hates us we are all dead.
There is a clear winner here: Kill Jesus. Of course we are not going to be popular, but let’s rip the band-aid off and get this over with. “it is better for you that one man should die for the people, than the whole nation should perish.”
Caiaphas spoke in defense of his idol. If we are to keep our place, our power, our position, Jesus needs to die. That’s what Ciaphas meant. Destroy Jesus to save our power - save our precious.
But that’s not what God meant. Ciaphas assumed that by destroying Jesus that would spell the end of the Jesus threat. FAR FROM IT! This is our second point.

Let’s see what God meant by the phrase, “it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish”

Ciaphas inadvertently uttered truth quite different from the message he intended. Had Ciaphas known what he had uttered he would have involuntarily shuddered. Ciaphas, an unbeliever who hates Jesus, utters the first and most profound theological treatise concerning the atonement. It’s staggering how God conscripts the mouth of an unbeliever for his purposes.
Here everyone is working their hardest to carry out the high priest’s plans against Messiah. The last verse of John 11 says they resolved to put Jesus on the cross. In other words the decision has now been made; it remains only to carry it out, as efficiently as is compatible with political expediency.
So into the think tank they go. Let concoct a plan, think it through to make sure it is air tight. Jesus is threatening us. All we need to do is eliminate him and we have won. So they wring their hands in a dimly lit room writing out decrees and declarations beneath the flickering candlelight. The smell of wax is heavy in the room as they press their signets into edicts and send runners here and there. We need to arrange these spies. We need to start greasing the wheels of Rome. Let’s get a gift up to Pilate to start bribing him and warming him up. All these plans.
They review their work and smile. Airtight. Jesus will end up crucified. Every escape blocked. Every door is closed. Every door that is, except the door to heaven.
Listen to Psalm 2 describe God’s perspective when men try to conspire against him.
Psalm 2

What is this saying? God will do what he wants. And if you are not on his side, you will lose. Everyone is working completely of their own volition to try to destroy Messiah and they are actually carrying out the plan of God! God is laughing.
Oh do you see it church? God cannot be stopped. You submit to God or be run over by him. Ciaphas tries to abuse God and God just laughes and uses him. And in so doing Ciaphas enters the long list of people who are used by God despite their best efforts. Jonah from last week, Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, Balaam.
Oh how foolish we are?

To think that we can use our minds to outwit the maker of minds?
To think we can use our legs to run from the maker of legs?
To think we can use our lips and lungs to speak words that would threaten the maker of lips and lungs?

I know of unbelivers who have led people to Christ. Corrupt pastors preach the Word of God. They are like Balaam’s ass, unthinking creatures uttering mysteries they know nothing about.
It’s such a rebuke to a rebel but such an encouragement to saint. Because you want to what else is true if God is sovereign?

If you are a parent and you are screwing things up like crazy, guess what. God overrides that screw-up.
If you are leading a ministry and you are thinking, man I am so inadequate. True. You say one thing and God does another.

What’s the principle?
God’s message is not bound to the performance of his pathetic messengers. God’s message transcends the messengers. The power is in the WORD. The power is in this book which contains power unto salvation.
You cannot stop God’s plan. Your rebellion will only be used to further it. Your obedience will only be used to further it.
Three warnings about what happens if we guard our precious. It will destroy others. It will not destroy God’s plan. Here’s perhaps the most frightening of all, it will destroy you.

Do you hear that? Their entire goal in life is to murder Messiah. Let that land and cause you to shudder.
Think about it: they had personally witnessed a man born blind healed in chapter 9. Now they hear of the public raising of a man four days dead. What does all this point to? What does the most elementry logic in the world conclude based off this indisputable evidence?
Here’s their conclusion: he must be from the devil. Kill him. All to guard their precious.
What I want you to notice here is how stupid since makes you. Do you see the blinders? Do you see the lenses that they are looking through that create utter distortion? Think about it.
They wanted to destroy Jesus but what they didn’t realize was that it would utterly destroy them. Ciaphas assumed that by destroying Jesus it would spell the end of the Jesus threat. But in point of fact, it would be that act ‘destroying’ Jesus that would elevate Jesus to the right hand of the throne of God and would utterly destroy his soul. Here we have a little Gollum, a sick creatures possessed by his idol.
These religious men are literally hell-bent on destroying Jesus. It’s so scary. How did they get there? Think about it. These guys were kids who grew up in Sunday School classes. They went to the Cole Valley’s and Ambroses of the 1st century. They never missed a Sunday service. They went to all the Thirst Winter Camps. They went to the best Biola’s and Talbots and Master’s Seminaries of the 1st Century. They got hired on as pastors in respecible churches. And they are trying to murder Jesus. How does this happen?
We have totally wasted our time here today if you can’t answer that question. How does this sort of thing happen where you can walk around and talk Christianeze and fit into Christian circles and even be leading Christian ministries and be a conspirator in the murder of Jesus?
Here’s the answer: unconfessed sin. Harboring and coddeling unconfessed sin will blind you to the point where you will destroy your family, destroy the church, destroy your community, your friends so that you can have your precious. Having idols in your life will absolutely destroy you.
How does something become an idol? Let me say this. In a very subtle, very inconspicuous, very innocent sort of way. It creeps in slowly, concealed in the ordinary. It slips in clothed in camouflage. And then suddenly, surprisingly you are in tremendous danger.
A few years ago, we were waterskiing on cascade lake and a storm rolled in and lighting was just pounding the mountains around us. And the lighting was getting closer and the thunder louder. And my arms started tingling a bit and I looked at my wife and the two other girls on the boat and all of their hair was standing straight up. The static in the air was literally just crackling all around us. And so what did we do? We started laughing. It was so funny looking. It felt funny. It was entertaining. I went home and googled the phenomena and saw multiple articles that were entitled "Selfies taken seconds before being struck by lighting."
We had no business being there. That’s the DANGER ZONE. We were in a spot where we were literally flirting with life and death. And I think it appropriate to allow this passage to scare us in an that sort of way.
Caiaphas, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, none of them thought they were being rebellious. They had logical reasons for the steps they were taking. They religious reasons. They could back up their moves from Torah. They felt fortified in every way and somehow they crucified Messiah. How does that happen?
Nobody thinks they have an idol. Oh sure, I’m not perfect, but who is. But when you can’t admit it, your in the most dangerous place of all. The longer that sin goes unconfessed the greater the grip that sin has on your life.
What are you hiding?

Sin of jealousy?
Sin of pornography?
Substance abuse?
Are you bitter and unable to forgive someone who has hurt you?
Are you angry and refuse to soften?
Are you too prideful to admit you are wrong?
Are your finances a total disaster because of your mismangement and your too embarased to admit it?

So often we feel we can harbor and hide our sin and play the Christian game too. And when we do that successfully for a while we feel like we are getting away with something. But we are not.
When you read the OT you see God acting in what seems like such severe ways.

God opens up the ground and swallows a bunch of people for complaining.

You were to stone people for what seem to us like minor offenses.

Why? And the accusation rises: God is a monster. No. God is merciful. Because that sin is serious. That sin unaddressed will turn into an idol and destroy your soul. And God wants us to be freaked out.
Every one of us can look at the pastor who committed adultery, or the poster child that walked away from the faith or the elder that was caught up in a pornagraphic addiction and wonder how did they get there? I would never go down that path. But if there is sin in your life and you are not dealing with it, if there is an idol you are unwilling to abandon, the lesson to be learned from today’s text is simply this: you are on your way there.
The one who falls into sin doesn’t fall very far.
If you are coddling your precious (which means if you have unconfessed sin in your life), you are in that DANGER ZONE. You might be having a great time. You might be having the time of your life. But your flirting with Spiritual death. I’ve watched several people in this church torch themselves in this way.
How can you tell if I am in the danger zone. How can I tell if I have an idol? Ask yourself two questions. Will I sin to get it? And will I sin if I don’t get it? If the answer is yes to either of those questions, congratulations, you have yourself an idol.
Nobody pictures themselves as a Caiphas. Caiphas didn’t grow up in Sunday school vowing to one day kill Messiah. But sin makes you blind. Sin make you stupid.
At some point, sin left unconfessed long enough turns you into a Ciaphas. Of course, everyone wants to ask the question: how long does it take for a normal sin to turn into a soul destroying idol? There’s no answer to that question.
Have you ever heard of the fallacy of the beard? The fallacy of the beard says if one hair doesn’t make a beard and neither does 2,3,4,5 then there is no such thing as a beard. We all know at some point it becomes a beard. And there is some point at which sin will plunge people into a spiral from which they cannot recover but that point is unknowable.
Sin will bring you to the place where you make decisions that look to everyone around you like bottomless foolishness. But you are blinded. Sin becomes more and more thoroughly enslaving until one day you find yourself throwing off all restraints and surrendering all that’s important to you so you can have your precious. That’s what has happened in this passage.
So what do you do? Here’s the admonition: there is no moral faculty that God has given more important that you than your conscience. The Bible teaches that it is the standard by which you will be judged. Your conscience is like a fire alarm. When you start sinning, that thing goes off. God gave every one of us the gift of a spiritual fire alarm.
Paul describes false teachers in 1 Tim 4:2 as those who have consciences that are seered. The greek word is cauterizomi from which we get our word cauterized and the picture is of a man in battle who gets his wound cauterized. What happens when you touch a cauterized part of your body? You can no longer feel.
So to cauterize your conscience is to render your conscience unable to feel. There is only one way to do that. Sin against it.
We’ve got a little alarm panel in our building that notifies us of a malfunctioning sensor. And every since we bought this building, it’s been throwing false alarms. Originally it was super, super loud and so we couldn’t listen to that all day long so we put a layer of tape over it. That helped a ton. If one layer, helps why not two. And now there’s this giant wad of tape and you can barely hear it. I’m half tempted to go in their and snip the speaker wire.
Every time you sin against your conscience you are putting a piece of tape over that warning signal and it’s getting quieter and quieter and at some point, a point you don’t know, that speaker wire is going to get snipped. You won’t even recognize it as sin any longer.
You will have no moral faculties left to warn you that you have become a Caiaphas. But here’s the good news. If you sense that his applies to you, there’s still time left. At any time you can repent.
Don’t leave here today and put another piece of tape over the alarm. It may be the last one. Don’t sear your conscience further. Nourish it back to help through confession.
I hope the elders and life group leaders and trusted counselors and all the pastors here get flooded with emails this week that say, “I’ve been harboring this sin and it’s time to do business with God. Would you help me.”
Yes! Yes, we will. You will be in good company. Welcome to the community of sinners. The feast of grace is only available to those who confess. So confess and feast.
How do I confess? Use Psalm 51 as a template. Why? Because Psalm 51 is David pulling out of a spiritual death spiral. 1000’s before him never did. But in God’s grace, David confesses and was restored.
Psalm 51

Let’s do business with God this week. For David, that confession was hell. But it resulted in the epitaph, a man after God’s own heart. Don’t you want that?