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This morning we're going to continue in the Gospel of John and , as you start turning there to John , chapter 11 , so that we can finish that section and move into John , chapter 12 ,

The Unavoidable Christ

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I want to talk to you this morning about what I'm calling I'm titling this sermon the Unavoidable Christ . So we've been in the gospel of John now for a number of weeks , maybe a number of months , and we picked back up from something that we started last year . And as we dig into the gospel of John , there is a lot of theological truth about who Jesus is and there's teachings about that , there's interactions with Pharisees and other religious leaders about that , and there's a variety of miracles that have happened , and in fact , there's more miracles in the other gospel accounts and we've seen a lot , we've read a lot , we've heard a lot , but last week we heard something unique , something more than just what's happened before , because the reality is , when you look at all of the other miracles that had been done even other times where , like with Jairus' daughter , they were raised back to life , it was different this time . And so I want to look at what I'm going to call unavoidable evidence . Unavoidable evidence that Jesus is who he says he is , you see , this miracle of going to Lazarus after he's been in the tomb and his body has literally started to rot , and Jesus goes and tells them to open the tomb and commands him to come out . And he comes out and he is perfectly fine . And it happens not in some backwater place , but it happens in Bethany , near Jerusalem , where there's actually religious leaders that are there to witness it , and there's a lot of people and everybody knew Lazarus .

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Lazarus wasn't some like no-name guy , he was a prominent guy . It seems from all the stories we have of Lazarus and his family that they had wealth and that God had blessed them and they were well known . So Lazarus dying was big news . Everybody knew . There was no denying it . And in fact , in the passage that we're going to look at today , you'll notice that the religious leaders , as they look at the situation , they don't deny it . They can't . It's irrefutable . Too many witnesses they saw it with their own eyes . Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of the tomb and he did Four days later .

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So with this you would say , well , now they're going to believe , right ? The religious leaders are going to say , oh yes , jesus , he's the Messiah , he's the one . Everybody follow him and let's get behind him and do whatever he says . That's what they're going to do , right ? Well , no , you know that , and the original readers of the Gospel of John know that . You see , this isn't written in a vacuum . This is written in a world where Jesus's death , burial and resurrection are testified to . So you don't come to this in suspense , not knowing what's going to happen . Everybody reading this would have known that Jesus was going to die and he was going to be raised again as well . You know that as well , and you know that the religious leaders are not going to do that . The real question is why don't they do that ? But then what about others ? What about others that could potentially respond one way or another ? What about the non-religious leaders ? What about Judas ? How does Judas respond ? What about Mary in this story ? How does Mary respond ?

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We're going to look at these three responses to the unavoidable Christ in just a moment , but first I want to just go ahead and read our passage . So our passage is going to start right where we left off last week , in verse 45 of John , chapter 11 . And we're going to go all the way through verse 11 of chapter 12 . So not enormous , but a bigger text , but I think you'll see why we're going to go through all of this , together with these three responses , when you would think everything should change , this absolutely unavoidable evidence that Jesus is the Christ . Let's read how things change , or how they don't . Verse 45, .

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Many of the Jews , therefore , who had come with Mary and had seen what he did , believed in him . So there's some change . But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done . So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council . What are we to do ? What are we to do For this man ?

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Jesus performs many signs Interesting word , signs that it's not just miracles , but they're miracles that actually point to something . They know it , they're not denying it . He performs many signs and they're scared of something . Listen , if we let him go on like this , everyone will believe in him . The expected response ? Right , we just said it . He just raised a man that was dead for four days .

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Of course people are going to believe that he is who he says he is , and so if we let him go on like this , everyone will believe . And that terrifies them . Because why ? Well , what happens if everyone believes ? What do they say ? And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation . You're scared , but one of them , caiaphas , who was the high priest that year , said to them you know nothing at all , nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people , not that the whole nation should perish . He did not say this of his own accord , but , being high priest that year , he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation . It's interesting . I think he means this one way , but his prophecy actually does turn out . It's just different than what he expects . We'll see . And not for the nation only , but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad .

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So from that day on , they made plans to put him to death . That's how it changes . Instead of believing , like everyone would have , instead now they started to make plans to put him to death . It wasn't just casual , you know . Hey , you know we get mad because he claimed deity and now we're going to stone him . It's that now they're actually moved on to premeditated murder . They're like we've got to put a stop to this guy , and so they're making plans to put him to death . You'll see , they don't just plan to put him to death , but we'll get to that part .

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Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews . You think of last week when Thomas was like , oh well , I guess we'll go and get killed too . He must have been relieved now because Jesus is no longer out walking about in the open , but he's kind of gone into hiding , right . So it says he went from there to the region near the wilderness , to a town called Ephraim , and there he stayed with the disciples . Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand , and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves . They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple

The Sanhedrin's Response: Fear and Rejection

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what do you think ? That he will not come to the feast at all ? They're like , hey , is he going to just stay in hiding or is he going to make an appearance ? Everybody's talking about it . Everybody's talking about Lazarus being raised from the dead . Everybody's talking about this miracle . I mean , there is buzz , everybody's talking about it . Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was , he should let them know so that they might arrest him . So they put out a warrant , right , like they've made it known like Jesus is wanted . Okay . Now it doesn't say necessarily they're making it known that they plan to kill him , but that they want to arrest him , that they want to question him , that they're going to say , hey , let's bring him before us and we can talk to him .

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Verse 1 of chapter 12, . Six days before the Passover , jesus therefore came to Bethany , where Lazarus was , whom Jesus had raised from the dead . So Jesus kind of sort of comes to a more prominent location . Right , he's in Bethany now and no longer in Ephraim . Remember , bethany is near Jerusalem . He's less in hiding . And so they gave a dinner for him there . Of course , you know they're going to celebrate Like this is the family of Lazarus . He just raised Lazarus from the dead . They love Jesus , they're good friends with Jesus already , but now they're wanting to celebrate , so they have a party . And what did they do while they were reclining at table ? It says in verse three .

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Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair . The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume . But Judas Iscariot , one of his disciples , who was about to betray him and everybody already knows the story of Judas . Remember , the readers know this . But John is giving them this information to go along with his purpose , to prove that Jesus is not just a good man , not just some prophet , but that Jesus actually is the Messiah , the Son of God . And so he's giving them this information and he's saying hey , here's the trader . And what does the trader do ? What does he do in this moment ? He said why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor ? He said this not because he cared about the poor , but because he was a thief and , having charge of the money bag , he used to help himself to what was put in it . Jesus said leave her alone , that she may keep it for the day of my burial , for the poor . You always have with you , but you do not always have me .

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When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there , they came not only on account of him , but also to see Lazarus , whom he had raised from the dead . So it's known now where he is . But here's what the chief priests do . They don't just go straight after Jesus . It says so the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well , because on account of him , many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus . I think it's funny that they're like , hey , we're going to kill Lazarus , because can't just Jesus just say , okay , we'll come back again , lazarus , like he already was dead once . Why is that going to solve it ? But they plot here to not only kill Jesus but to kill Lazarus as well . So I want to look a little bit more in depth . We obviously read that with a lot of detail .

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I'm not going to try to re-go through every element of that text , but I want to look in a little more depth at these three responses to the unavoidable Christ . These three responses to the unavoidable Christ , because this evidence is irrefutable . In fact we know it because even the enemies of Jesus say if it keeps going on , everyone will believe in him , and clearly they don't want that . So the first response we see is that of the Sanhedrin , and their response is fear and rejection . So the Sanhedrin it doesn't say the word Sanhedrin there , but what it says in the text is that the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council . So the council there is referring to the Sanhedrin . The Sanhedrin was a Jewish ruling council , that was . It had chief priests , scribes , elders , it was Pharisees , sadducees , it was kind of like all the religious leaders combined , like . They're not necessarily all of them , but the leaders of each of the different sects were combined in this Sanhedrin .

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This council and this council held both religious and political authority under Roman oversight . So outwardly , obviously , they claimed to seek God's will . They were actually , as shown by this text , more concerned about maintaining their power and their influence rather than actually identifying the Messiah . In Matthew 23 , jesus identifies the religious leaders as sitting in the seat of Moses . Sitting in the seat of Moses basically means hey , you have the job of looking out and identifying the Messiah . But the reality is is they were neglecting their duty . They were not sitting , well , in the seat of Moses , and though that's a different book of the Bible , I think the context here the original readers would have clearly understood that this Sanhedrin , that those people , this council , were the ones who were supposed to have the authority to say the Messiah is here .

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Yet when it all came down to it , they responded with fear and rejection . Responded with fear and rejection , their reaction . Instead of believing they plot to kill Jesus and then kill Lazarus , because Lazarus's own existence is proof of Jesus' power . We looked at these two verses already , verses 47 and 48 . So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said what are we to do ? For this man performs many signs . I talked about that briefly . That word signs . It indicates that they recognize beyond just miracles , but that Jesus's actions are pointing to something . Jesus' actions are pointing to something , and so they say that they cannot let him go or everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation . They frame this like this hey , if Jesus is allowed to continue on , if Jesus is allowed to continue on , it will destroy the good things we have , it will destroy our country , it'll destroy our power structure , it will destroy our rule of law , it'll destroy all of this . So , with all of this motivating them , this fear of what might happen , it is deeply ironic that , though they were supposed to be looking for the Messiah , they didn't even really want to find him .

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What this is kind of like is , you know , you hear like conspiracy theories about pharmaceutical companies . Right , nobody seems to be fans of pharmaceutical companies . If you're a pharmaceutical company , you know , fan , raise your hand . Not really , but like you know , the pharmaceutical companies get a bad rap because they put a lot of money and energy into research and then they sell the drugs that they create and they sell them at a premium price and they're copyrighted or patented or whatever , and so nobody can copy them and they make a lot of money and all of that I'm not going to get into like what they should do or shouldn't do .

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But imagine for a moment that someone working in his garage discovers a cure for cancer and he decides I'm not going to make billions off of this , I'm going to just give it away . I'm going to give a free license to everyone and like it's a perfect cure . You take a pill and it's gone . No more cancer , completely cured . The pharmaceutical companies , I would hope , would just be like yay , that's great . But imagine for a moment that somehow that news got out and a certain pharmaceutical company found out and they're like hey , we could squash this and keep making money on all our drugs , that we sell , all of our chemo and this , and that all the things that we currently make to help with cancer , all the research projects we have in the pipeline , everything . And so , though there's a cure over here , we're going to squash it so that we can keep our current system because it's working for us .

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Now , if you found out that that actually happened in our world , and especially if you are someone who had lost a loved one to cancer and that pill could have been available , how would you feel about that pharmaceutical company ? I mean , it's a rhetorical question . Obviously you would be furious . You would say how could someone be so evil ? Are you furious at the Sanhedrin ? How could they be so evil ? They knew . They knew that this evidence was so clear that people would believe , and so they sought to put him to death . They're more afraid of losing control than rejoicing in the truth .

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Contrast that with Mary , who we'll look at in a moment . She pours out her very valuable , costly ointment as an act of worship to Jesus , who raised her brother from the grave . Yet the Sanhedrin clung to what was to them the most valuable thing their power , their position and their influence , even at the cost of rejecting the Messiah . They didn't want to pour out what was valuable to them . They wanted to keep it , even if that meant they couldn't have Jesus . So it kind of raises the question yes , they were in the seat of Moses , but did they even want the Messiah .

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We say that the Messiah that people were expecting was more of like a conquering king than a suffering servant . Right , we say that fairly often that there was a widespread expectation that than a suffering servant . Right , we say that fairly often that there was a widespread expectation that the Messiah was coming , but when Jesus didn't line up with their expectations , they rejected him . But I actually think that this particular passage shows that , specifically within the religious leaders , it was more than just , oh , he's not what we expected . I think it's saying , hey , these guys are so gripped by the evil one that they don't even want the Messiah , even their version . They're happy with how things are . They're happy with how things are . So maybe they didn't even want a Messiah that conformed to their expectations .

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I think sometimes we look at this and we think of ourselves as so much better than these members of the Sanhedrin and remember , this is us too . We don't of our own want the kind of Messiah that Jesus is . We want someone to tell us we're good enough . We want someone that isn't going to have a high cost . In fact , sometimes we preach the gospel that way , because the gospel , yes , it is the good news that the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ and it doesn't require anything of us . That's all true , but at the same time , it is also true that Jesus says let the dead bury their dead and come and follow me . It's also true that Jesus says if you are not willing to forsake your very own loved ones to follow me , you're not worthy of me .

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There is a high cost to following Jesus . Not following Jesus is not meant to be easy . Yes , the burden is light . That means that when Jesus says that the burden is light , what he means is that he provides everything we need to be able to follow him . But look at the very disciples themselves . What was their cost ? Almost all of them were executed for their trouble . You think that was against God's plan . No , there is a high cost , and what we're going to see when we look at Mary's gift is we're going to see a high cost that was paid to worship Jesus . Mary's gift is we're going to see a high cost that was paid to worship Jesus and ultimately , it's a high cost that the Sanhedrin were not willing to pay the risk of losing everything that was important to them their power , their position and their influence . So that's the first response to Jesus the Sanhedrin . They responded in fear and rejection . The next response to Jesus that I want to look at , even though it's a little out of order , is I want to look at Judas's

Judas's Response: Selfishness and Hypocrisy

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response . So Judas's response was selfishness and hypocrisy .

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So the story transitions right and I already read it . We already read it in quite a bit of detail so I won't rehash all of it , but the very short version of it is hey , they go back , they're sitting at a dinner and Mary breaks out this ointment and uses it to anoint Jesus' feet . And in our culture , in our day , that seems really weird . Presumably it wasn't weird in this culture , but it would have been highly , highly unusual to break out this expensive anointment and use it this way . When Judas says that it's worth 300 denarii , that's like a year's wages of like a worker . So you know , I should have looked this up . I should have looked this up . What is the average year's wage for someone living here ? But let's say it's $100,000 . It's effectively , she just put $100,000 on Jesus's feet . It's effectively , she just put $100,000 on Jesus' feet and it's going to be gone and it smells really strong and everybody's like whoa , that smells what's going on there . People recognize what it is right . Look at verse 4 .

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But Judas Iscariot , one of the disciples who was about to betray him , said why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor ? And he said this not because he cared about the poor , but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it . So obviously Judas' response here , we're told , is not because he cared about the poor , it's because he cared about money . And so there was an obvious hypocrisy , is a fundamental misunderstanding of who Jesus is , despite the fact that Judas had seen so much . Now I don't know , I don't know , we don't know what was in Judas' heart all the way along the line . You know the Scriptures paint a rather negative picture of him , obviously , but I don't know that he always thought he had evil intentions . It does say that Satan in some way entered into him or influenced him , and so there was definitely a change . But I think , like the way I see , the way Scripture paints Judas as a whole , is that I think he really wanted a Messiah . I think he was unlike the Sanhedrin . He actually wanted a Messiah , but maybe the things that he wanted in a Messiah were ultimately absolutely not what Jesus was offering and he started to see that and this was a pivotal moment .

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I mean , here's the thing . We rightly so give a lot of grief to Judas , but tell me , you don't sympathize with Judas . Tell me this if I had a hundred thousand dollars right here and like , I just used it in a way that you thought was way extravagant to worship Jesus and it's gone , you're going to tell me you're not going to question the wisdom of that , I would question the wisdom of that . I'd be like , well , that's a lot of . Is that worth it ? You know , like we could . We're in this beautiful building , we spent a good amount of money on this beautiful building and you know what Some people and the criticism can be valid .

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Some people would say , well , why'd you spend the money ? Making this building nice and I don't want to overdo this , but we think that a place for gathering to worship God is worth taking care of and making it beautiful and investing in it and trying not to be wasteful in the process and doing a lot of the work yourself and all those kinds of things , but creating a nice space to gather to worship God . We believe that's worth it . But I could totally see how someone would say , well , why wouldn't you just give all that money to missions and just do with what you have ? Or why wouldn't you just use it all to missions and just do with what you have ? Or why wouldn't you just give it all to the poor , or whatever .

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I think we can sympathize with Judas's thought and though it was hypocritical , I think we can . But the reality is this that though Judas was literally stealing from Jesus' purse , my question to you is this do we rob God of the worship that is due him ? Are we stingy in giving our time , our resources or our devotion ? Do we seek ways to minimize our own cost of following Jesus ? You'll see a thread here in all three of these scenarios , all three of these responses are people or groups who have some amount of means , whether that be wealth , whether that's power and influence , whatever it is , whether it's a very , very , very expensive jar of ointment , they all have something of great value . Or , like for Judas , like he values money a lot and he's helping himself to it and all of this , helping himself to it and all of this . And the ultimate question with all of them is are they willing to lose it for the sake of Jesus ? Are you willing to lose your reputation to follow Jesus ? Are you willing to give generously and sacrificially , in a way that people would say that's stupid ? Why would you do that ? Are you willing to pour out your precious , whatever it is for the one who poured out his blood for you ? You see , obviously Judas and the Sanhedrin were not . But let's look at Mary's response .

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Mary's piece in this story ,

Mary's Response: Worship and Devotion

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peace . In this story , mary's reaction was worship and devotion . Worship and devotion . Her reaction to the miracle , to who this Jesus was , was extravagant worship . She anoints Jesus' feet with costly ointment , this $100,000 jar , and then she wipes it with her hair . Like I said , it seems weird to us . Presumably it wasn't weird in that culture , it was in some way a beautiful thing . And Jesus says to her in verse 7 , leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial . You see , remember , though in that moment that statement may have been like what's going on ?

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Because we've been told again and again and again that though Jesus has said lots of times that like I'm going to die and get raised up , that for some reason the disciples just couldn't grasp it , and though they are legitimately fearing for their life , though last week we read Thomas's words about like Lord , we're going to all die when we go to this public place anyway . They don't actually expect to be burying Jesus , but the readers here , they would have known that Jesus was going to be put to death , and , in fact , where this is in the gospel of John . I mean , we're on chapter 11 . We're like halfway-ish through the book . The whole thing leading up till now was like all of Jesus' life . The whole rest of the book is basically one week , okay , so we are transitioning into this final week and this anointing is effectively preparing his body for burial .

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It is an extravagant act of worship that would not have been lost on the readers that , hey , what is going on here is something profound that Jesus , though he , is ready to die , that there are those who believe in him in such a way that recognize that Jesus is the very Son of God , the Messiah , the Christ , that they're willing to take what . I don't really care how wealthy someone was , this was an extravagant gift to pour out on someone's feet , and you know what Jesus was worth it . A thousand times over . She gave what she could give , even if she didn't fully understand everything that she was doing . Jesus recognizes this as preparation for his burial . So what is the right response to who Jesus is presented to be as this undeniable Christ ? The right response , well , it's this that true faith sees Jesus as worthy of everything .

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Mary's act was costly , both financially and socially . She was getting ridiculed , and I have to say , probably probably , though Judas was the one who spoke out loud . I bet you some of the other disciples were singing the same thing . I think I would have been , don't you think ? Maybe you might have been , but Jesus doesn't rebuke her . She saw Jesus as more valuable than anything she owned , and you know what ? We still talk about this story today , because it shows us in a profound way that Jesus is worth it . Look at it compared to the Sanhedrin . They feared the cost of loss of power and position , but Mary willingly gave up her most valuable possession . Judas clung to financial security and saw devotion like this as wasteful , but Mary gave extravagantly and didn't hold anything back .

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So my question is this Are you willing to worship

What Is Your Most Valuable Thing?

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Him , to worship Jesus without reservation , even if other people mock you or misunderstand you , even if people call you a freak or say you know , why do you spend so much time at church ? Why is your religion so important to you ? What is the most valuable thing in your life ? What is the most valuable thing in your life ? Don't give me the spiritual answer . You don't actually have to speak any answer . Think about it in your head . What's the most valuable thing in your life ? Are you willing to pour it out for Jesus ?

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I think it's hard . You know we , we serve a God who is worthy of everything . We serve a God who is worthy of everything . But here's the good news . The good news is this Even though Mary didn't do it perfect all the time , even though we don't do it all the time and we might sympathize with Judas in this story the time even though we don't do it all the time , and we might sympathize with Judas in this story Jesus poured out his own blood Because , though we are not perfect in fact we're desperately wicked Jesus gave it all so that we could have relationship with him , so that we could be called the sons and daughters of God . What a glorious truth it is . And this is where , ultimately , this serves .

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In the book of John . This passage serves as a transition to the Holy Week , because here's the thing the raising of Lazarus . It was undeniable . Even Jesus' enemies knew it . But if bringing another man back from the dead was not enough , what would be enough ? There's only one thing left for Jesus to do . It was to raise himself from the dead . That would be the ultimate sign that he is the Messiah , that he is the Messiah .

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So the question is do you want Jesus ? Do you want this one ? The Sanhedrin feared losing power . Judas loved his wealth . Mary gave everything up in worship . We all have means . We all have things that God has blessed us with . Even when our life is hard , there are good things in it . Are we willing to lay those at Jesus' feet ? We saw this sign last week of the raising of Lazarus , and this week we've seen how everyone , or at least these three , responded . My encouragement to you know who Jesus really is and worship him . Put it all out there . Don't be scared , don't run from ridicule . Be willing to follow Jesus , because he may not be who you would imagine him to be , but he is so much more . So follow him .