Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to the Gospel of John to chapter 11? Chapter 11, beginning in verse 45, is what Bible scholars call a bridge passage. It's a common literary device that ancient writers use when they transition from one volume or one focus in a book to another. John has basically two books in his Gospel. The book of signs, the second is the book of suffering. In this passage, the book of signs is coming to a close, and the book of suffering is beginning to open up. And just as Jesus began his book of signs by telling about seven people who had an encounter with the living Christ, they were John the Baptist, his early disciples, Nicodemus, the woman at the well in Samaria, the town of Saikar, a man who had a sick child and a lame man at the pool of Bethesda in the temple. Those seven people were the types of people that Jesus Christ would interact with as he gave his wonderful signs and his sermons that talked about who he was and what he could do for us. It's an amazing thing that when John closes, book one in turns to book two, when he moves from the signs of Jesus Christ to the suffering of Jesus Christ, he introduces us again to the seven kinds of people. This time maybe fewer with a name, but the same seven profiles we saw in the first three chapters or four chapters of the Gospel. There are people who are learning to follow Jesus Christ and people who resent Jesus Christ, some who are afraid of Him, some who are entertained by Him. They find Him amusing, some that love Him, some that are determined to punish Him, they become disenchanted and disillusioned with Him, and some that are atrophied of His grace. Those seven kinds of people that Jesus finds in His life we find in ours. Back in the years between 1971 and 1973, I was a young lieutenant in the United States Army. I was in the Medical Services Corps, I have no medical background, but they needed administrative officers and I was commissioned to be one of them. And I served in Fort Sheridan Illinois north of Chicago at an institution that's now at Fort Sam Houston in Texas called the United States Army Medical Services Veterinary Corps. In fact, when they assigned me there, the major said, do you know anything about animals? I said, I don't know the front end of a horse from the back end of a horse. He said, you're qualified to be the troop commander, so that was my job. As these young men and women, 200 every six months came in to go through their advanced training to be food inspection officers and health service officers. I was their company commander, and I did fairly well. But then towards my end of my second year, my comment on a colonel who had graduated from the High State University Medical School and Veterinary School, and therefore since I was a buckeye graduate, I was kind of his favorite. He's in fact, first time I'm in, he said, I'm going to call you buckeye. I said, all right, Carol, what can I call you? He said, you can call me sir. So we had a real nice relationship. And he asked me if I would like to be promoted to Captain. I said, I would. He said, well, to do that, we'd like you to sign on for another three years, and I'll give you your choice of your tour of duty, so I signed some papers to become a captain and to go to Germany. And about a month later, the commanding general of the medical corps, one-star general was coming to give what was called an Adjutance Inspection. It was a big inspection of everything from your paperwork to the way your soldiers were dressed. It's a big thing. And I had to have all of the troop ready, all of their facilities in perfect order, and so I was told one day to report to, I was on a Wednesday, I was to report at 10 o'clock to the classroom building in a squirt the general, and eight of the colonels to the company command that I had, and to give them a tour. The only problem was I was told to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time. The general and his eight colonels did not go to the classroom building. They showed up at my office. And I learned about that ten minutes beforehand, and I was across post, so I broke all the speed records and ran the stop signs that I got there. And as I walked in the back door, they were walking in the front, so I walked up and saluted and reported for duty, and apologized for being a few seconds late, and the general said no problem. Lieutenant, let's see the troop. So I gave him an inspection, tour, and he was very impressed. In fact, he turned in front of my commandant and the other colonels and said, you know, if I had a young officer like this colonel Lyday, I would promote him. And I figured this is the way it's supposed to work. But then another colonel in the group who had been passed over by my colonel and had gotten this position, by the way, this commandant's position was the heir apparent to the commanding general of the veterinary corps. He said, well, if I had a young lieutenant like that, he'd be at the right place at the right time when I came for an inspection. I figured, woo. Well, folks, in 24 hours, I went from golden boy to first lieutenant on the hot seat because people came out of the woodwork, and what was quite frankly a bull hill was made into a mountain. There was a command sergeant major who and I, he and I never got along, in fact, it got worse when about a month earlier, he had been driving under the influence of alcohol, and I had to go down to the jail and get him out, and I had to discipline him. That didn't help our relationship. He happened to be the secretary of my commanding officer. He began to talk to the colonel about how arrogant this young first lieutenant has become, how cocked sure he was. Then the lieutenant colonel that told me to be at the classroom instead of my office, when the colonel asked him, he said, oh, I never told him that because he was afraid. He was going to retire in 30 days, and he didn't want any trouble on the way out, and things began to happen, and so finally, one day, a couple days later, in front of the whole staff, the colonel rebuked me, and I responded defensively, and he didn't take that very well. And so he called me into his office one day at 3.30, he said, I'm going to relieve you of your command. That doesn't sound a big thing to civilians, but to be relieved of a command is a disgraceful thing in the military. It is effectively the end of your career, and it kind of guarantees that you will never again get a promotion. And so I asked him on what grounds, and he said, for being irresponsible. So I was naturally devastated. There were other people that came to my defense. My supervisor, Major Turlington went and said, Colonel, we can't relieve him of his command. He just gave him the highest rating on a performance review eight days before the general showed up. How can we go from one end of the continuum to the extent? In fact, even the faculty weighed in on my behalf and my sergeants, and the one who tipped the scales was the Colonel's wife. She said, I really think he ought to be gracious to the buti. But he had already made that decision, so rather than relieve me of my command, he promoted me to a desk job, which wasn't really a promotion at all. And so that day, I made three decisions. I asked to see my re-enlistment papers, and I tore them up. I decided I would not be part of the military. I also decided that I would just enroll and graduate school and get a business degree and see what I could do in the corporate world, and I made the decision that if I ever had people underneath my supervision, I would never make a life-altering decision about their performance when I was angry. I don't need to tell you folks that I was angry, and I was embarrassed, and I was confused, and I was sad because I had planned to make the military my career. And then one of the captains who served with me invited me over a couple weeks later and said, you know, Mike, he said, this looks pretty bad right now, but he said, I think it's just part of God's plan for your life, which does not include a career in the army. And I said, I don't think God has anything to do with this. I think this is between me and two jealous colonels. Well, I was wrong. But those same kind of people that Jesus Christ encounters in his life, we will encounter in our life. And it will look at times as if they have the upper hand and do things that are hurtful to us, that the change our life. And that's exactly what John wants you to think at this point, how all these people begin to conspire against Jesus Christ, only to find out in the end, that it was all part of God's great plan to redeem you and me. We can't do much about the people in our lives and what they do, we really can't. What we can do is to look to Jesus Christ and to trust Him for our lives and for His sovereign control over the events in our life. And that is what we learn in this passage. What are these people going to do with Jesus Christ? That's the question. In fact, that seems to be the question always on the lips of Jesus Christ. Whom do people say the Son of Man is? Whom do you say that I am? In fact, there's a story in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus says as he came into the district of his home region, who do people say the Son of Man is? And the disciples said, well, some say you're John the Baptist and others that you're Elijah and still others say that you're Jeremiah or one of the great prophets. But Jesus said to them, who do you say that I am? Peter responded, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered him, bless her to you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father who isn't heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock, this profession of faith that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my church and even hell will not prevail against it. That is the question. Jesus is always asking you and me at every stage of our life, who do you believe I am? That profession of faith is the ground upon which Jesus builds his gospel church. So this morning I want to do what John wants us to do. I want to look at these seven different people, each one of them briefly and see what they thought about Jesus Christ and why they felt the way they did. The first person we noticed are those who are learning to follow Jesus Christ. This is character sketch number one. Those who were learning to follow Jesus Christ in verse 45. Now many of the Jews therefore had come with Mary and had seen what he did and believed in him. There were people, remember last week we talked about the people who came to mourn with Mary and Martha over the death of Lazarus. They came to the funeral and they saw what Jesus Christ did and raising Lazarus from the dead and they believed in him. Now the sad thing is the vast majority of Bible commentators don't believe their faith was that genuine or at least there seems to be a great debate about it. Some say they really didn't have saving faith because they didn't repent of their sins or put their faith in Christ. They just believe that Jesus was some great miracle worker come from God. Others think that it was although inadequate some religious expression of genuine trust. Some say that it was what we might call foxhole faith. It was a temporary belief. They were impressed with what Jesus did and they would believe in Jesus Christ as long as he continued to do miraculous things but as soon as you went to the cross and suffered and died their faith would be devastated. The truth of the matter is we don't really know whether this was genuine faith or not. We can speculate all we want but they did believe in him in some way. They did take that first step. They did like Peter early on in his life believe that Jesus was the Christ. The promised anointed one from God, whatever that meant and they weren't sure. But he was somehow some divine person perhaps what he said he was the son of God. You know faith in Jesus Christ has a way of always testing us time and again. Faith is not a static thing folks. It's not like we trust in Christ one time and then it's over. We coast on that for the next 50 years. So time and again will be tested with who Jesus is and what he expects from us. It seems to me that when we talk about living faith, saving faith that must work itself through three stages. First of all, we believe what Jesus says about himself based upon his performance. Secondly, we put our trust in him. We trust in him alone for salvation and thirdly, we learn how through the ups and downs of a life of discipleship, how to be loyal and faithful to him. Jesus once said they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all the nations for my name's sake. Many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold but those who endure to the end will be saved. There is an endurance factor in saving faith where we continue to review who Jesus Christ is and trust in him. I believe these people for what is worth were sincere people who were taking their first step in faith. I'm not saying that all of them continued in faith and that all of them got to heaven because many of them in just a matter of six days would cry out for Jesus Christ to be crucified and then many of them after crying out for crucifixion would on Pentecost Sunday repent and believe. The truth of the matter is folks we never know who really has saving faith until the end has come. Those who abide loyally in Jesus Christ, even though it may be up and down through life. Sometimes their faith is strong and sometimes it's abysmally weak. Those who endure to the end Jesus Christ will be saved but there must be a first step of faith, some nation, some beginning, some infantile response to who Jesus is. That is the beginning of eternal life. Starting with these people are a second kind of person. Those who resent Jesus Christ, look at verse 46. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Jesus Christ miracles his signs, always have a way of dividing the house. You'll notice that at the end of every single sign that John talks about, there is a division in the house. Some say that this must be the Messiah, this must be a man from God, this must be God himself. And others say no, that's not true. And there are people for reasons we'll never figure out who followed Jesus Christ religiously all of his earthly life and were always against him. His miracles would move some people toward him and other people away from him. And there seem to be people like the crippled man in chapter 5 who after he is healed goes and tattles on Jesus Christ for breaking this Sabbath to get Jesus Christ in trouble and these people do the same thing. Their response is not one of admiration, oh, they're saying to the Sanhedrin, you must believe on the marvelous things this man has done, look at the word in the begins verse 46. It's a significant word, the word but, which always tells us there's the contrast. As some began to believe but others began to do the opposite, they began to move away. They went to the Sanhedrin knowing that they had already plotted and determined to kill Jesus Christ and gave them more fuel for the fire. Why? I mean let me ask you an honest question, who could honestly not like Jesus Christ? Who would honestly dislike the man? There were many, many who resented him. I don't know why, perhaps his preaching convicted them and made them angry. Perhaps he challenged their religious status quo and that made them uncomfortable and they resented it. Maybe they had brought a loved one and stood in line for a long time all day or days on end and Jesus Christ never got around to healing that loved one. Who does?
But they resented something about Jesus Christ, he wasn't cool, he wasn't fun, he was unreasonable, radical. He had an ego problem, he had a mecyony complex for cry out loud and they were against him. I've noticed something in the ministry and I don't want to make any comparison against me and Christ because I don't have a mecyony complex, I don't think. But I've noticed this, that once somebody makes up their mind, they don't like this guy, he never gets a fair hearing. If he tells a joke, he's drawn attention to himself. If he tells a story, oh it's not about him. If he cracks a joke, what a smart Alec. If he makes a statement that's a rather straightforward, he's harsh, he's narrow-minded, he's insensitive, he gets a little bit irritated, he has explosions of anger, it's always something. And that preacher can watch other preachers do the same thing and everybody loves it because they've made up their mind, they like Joe and they don't like Bob. That's how the human mind works, we make up our minds way too early about people, including Jesus Christ. And once we've made up our mind, it's hard for objective material to cut through that and give the man a fair hearing, to give Jesus Christ a fair opportunity to prove who he is. I mean, how could Jesus Christ do all these marvelous things for people, cast out demons, heal the sick, feed masses of people when they were hungry, make lepers be clean, raise a widow's son from the grave and one of his best friends and be a bad person. So there must have been something in their souls that was resentful and they follow Jesus Christ, listen, hoping one day, just one time, he'd say the wrong thing, they could take a CD of his sermon and send it off to somebody else and really get him in trouble. Maybe he'd try some miracle and it would flop. Maybe he'd look into an open grave and say come out and nothing would happen. But every time they hoped for Jesus' failure, he exceeded their wildest imaginations, even raising people from the dead. And that made them resent him all the more, rather than say, you know, I was wrong about this young preacher from Nazareth. He really is the man from God. They had determined since they couldn't cause him to fail. They could bait him into some heresy or taunt him into some explosion of anger or cause him to say something religiously or politically deadly or even fail at some miraculous venture they would simply help the Sanhedrin kill him.
Why would that happen? Because of the third kind of person, those who are afraid of Jesus Christ, verse 47. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do? For this man performs many signs and if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take both our place and our nation. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all. Nord, 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 on his own accord, but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation and not for the nation only but also to gather into one the children of God were scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews but went from there to the region near the wilderness to a town called Ephraim and there he stayed with the disciples. Here is the ruling body of Israel, the religious ruling body called the Sanhedrin, the 70 elders, made up of priests and Levites and Pharisees. And they had made determination that this Jesus Christ was dangerous. One of them, the high priest said, look, you boys understand none of the realities of political life. If this Jesus Christ continues to do these miraculous things, including raising people from the dead, then the whole nation will go after him and we will see him as a competitor to Caesar. They will send their massive army into this place and they will take away our place, keywords, look at him, our place and our nation. So for the sake of this people, this one man should die. I find that fascinating that they would say that the temple was our place and that Israel was our nation, not God's place, not God's people. They had no hope that God would defend his people. They needed to preserve his sacred rights, but only that politics would prevail over religion. These people were afraid of Jesus Christ. This Caiaphas who was the high priest for the life of Jesus Christ, from the age of Jesus Christ when he was about 25 to his death, and that Lord's Caiaphas was the high priest during Jesus Christ, public ministry. He determined that it would be better if just one itinerant preacher died than the whole nation be ravaged by Rome. The root cause was simply this. The root of their fear was this. Jesus Christ would not be a pawn in their political gains. Notice how their political ambitions became their religious mission. They were merged. Much as we merge politics and religion at times, we all have our own Jesus. That's what we'll find out as we work through this passage. Everybody has their own Jesus. Therein lies the problem. Only one of the seven can be right. And they were determined to have a Messiah who could protect them from Rome, perhaps even prevail over them. Jesus Christ was doing things to make that difficult. And so they determined that this particular Messiah, because it had been a dozen before him, he had to go like all the rest until the right one who served their purposes came along, then they'd support him. Now before folks, before we're too hard on them,
don't we do the same thing? If we have of Jesus Christ who is holy and condemned sins and questions capitalism, then he's a little bit too liberal for us. He's got too much of a social gospel. I mean, he doesn't really respect human rights and he's a little bit narrow. He doesn't understand our pluralism, our relativism, our American experiment. You know, he just doesn't fit in with our life. Whether he's the democratic Jesus or the republican Jesus, he just rubs us the wrong way. He's either too urban or he's too suburban. He's too social or he's too personal. He's against materialism or he's materialistic. Fill into blank. If Jesus Christ comes with a kingdom of God that will revision our lives and reshape our world, then we are often afraid of him. Because when he says God bless America, he means something very different from what most of us anticipate. It's God's blessing. And that is the Jesus Christ we're talking about here in the Scriptures. He's one who says the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Things are going to be different now that I've arrived. And maybe we don't want them different. Maybe maybe he's too scary for us. Reminds me of a line in C.S. Lewis's book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, when the children are meeting Aslan for the first time and they say boy, he's big. Is he safe? And the little creature says safe. No, he's never been safe. But he's good. So which Jesus do you want? The safe one that you create and manage? Or the good one sent from heaven with the kingdom of God? No need to be afraid of him, although many are. Here's the fourth person, those who were entertained by Jesus Christ, verse 55. Now the Passover Jews was at hand and many went up from the country of Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves and they were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in temple, what do you think that he will come to the feast at all? Now the chief priest in the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know so that they might arrest him. Now here's the mob. And some of them are saying, what do you think? He'll come. What do you think? I think they'll be a big fight. I think this will get bloody. These same people that chased their ambulances drawn by mules on those days. They like to watch reality shows. Lost Israel. They just liked something that was more... They were the kind of kids in high school that said there's going to be a fight, so they formed a big circle and got to two people inside and egg them on. What an entertaining thing. Listen to this. This is going to be great. The saying he's going to stand before this guy who casts out demons and raises the dead. I can't wait to see it. This is the Jesus of the media, of Hollywood, of the academy, sometimes of Washington DC. Jesus who is bizarre, who is shocking? He's the Jesus of the Da Vinci code or the last temptation of Christ or the Passion of Christ or Jesus Christ Superstar. He is a blast to watch. But no one takes him seriously.
What these people fail to realize is that Jesus Christ did not come to entertain, but to rescue them from their own entertainments, which were the sources of their own destruction, and that their sensationalism was always what made him retreat into privacy. Jesus Christ did not come to prove himself to the world, but only to his elect. And he is not here. If Jesus Christ were in this town today, he would be giving no interviews to the media. He wouldn't be blogging all over the world, letting people know his opinion, and always wanting to be in the limelight. This Jesus Christ was not driven by ambition, though the Lord and the desire to be known and respected and be famous. He was driven by a mission to suffer and save that which was lost and that the Father had chosen to be redeemed. Here's the fifth person, those who are in love with Jesus Christ. Chapter 12, verse 1. Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, so that he gave a dinner for him there. Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 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. Mary, the little sister of Martha and Lazarus loved Jesus Christ. She goes and gets something no doubt given to her as part of her inheritance, perhaps part of her hope chest or dowry because it doesn't appear that Mary's married yet. She takes an expensive jar of perfume, worth, we find out in the next verses, 300 dinari, now let's do the math here. A dinarius was the daily wage of one field worker. In other words, it was minimum wage for one day's work which in North Carolina in 2011 is $58. Multiply that times 300, basically a year's days of work. We average about 300 work days a year and she gave to Jesus Christ, she took perfume and poured it out on Jesus Christ. That cost her $17,400. What a waste of true riches, not if you're in love. There are men in this room who spent more than that on an engagement ring for a sinful creature
but she's beautiful. There are some people who give that as their tie every year to the church. I know there are parents who pay more than that every year for the tuition of their children who were still an elementary junior high in high school. In other words, when we love people, we spend and we spend big on them. It's the right thing to do. And Mary wasn't love with him why because he saved her. He saved her sister and her brother. Raised her brother from the dead. He was one of her intimate friends. They spent time together. We all know the story about Martha Mary. How Mary just would sit at the feet of Jesus and do nothing but talk. And because she loved him, she said, you know, there's nothing too good for him, nothing. That's what a true lover of Jesus Christ is. They worship Jesus Christ as Mary did. They bow down to His feet. They kiss Him in song and they weep in prayer. They caress in their heart His nails guard hands and feet. They spend their money on Him. They invest in His church and in His mission and His work. There's nothing too good for Jesus Christ because there's no one as lovely and lovable in all of the universe than Jesus Christ, only the best for Him. These are the people who love Jesus Christ while at the same time. They seem to come in contradicting pairs, don't they? There are people who are disenchanted with Jesus Christ, namely Judas Iscariot, verse 4. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was about to betray him, said, why has this ointment not been sold for 300 dinariah 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 into it. Jesus said, leave her alone so 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. Here's a man who turned on Jesus Christ. He would sell him for 30 pieces of silver. John tells us why. The guy was a money lover. He was dipping into the kiddie as the treasure and stealing from the group. He would sell Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. You know, we've wondered for centuries why he did that. We have a hint. Judas, his name Iscariot means carrier of the sword, was believed to be a zealot. This is what zealots believed. This is interesting. That if they concurrently turned to Israel in a religious awakening back to God and started an insurrection against Rome, God would come to Israel, vindicator, and crush all their Gentile enemies. So the zealots loved John the Baptist because he was turning Israel to God, and they initially loved Jesus Christ because he talked about a kingdom other than Rome. The perfect scenario, the revolution, and the redemption of Israel had come. But then when Jesus Christ began to say, I didn't come here to start a revolution, I have no earthly kingdom. I'm going to go to the cross and die for sinners. And that includes the Gentiles and Romans. That includes Caesar himself. Then all of a sudden Judas was disappointed and disenchanted. And you know folks when you get disenchanted, it's too easy to just walk away. No, when people are really disappointed and really disenchanted, they want revenge. Jesus Christ did not live up to Judas Iscariot's expectations. That means folks that in the base of his soul deep down where only God can go, Judas Iscariot was judging Jesus Christ by his stands rather than enter into the kingdom of God by Christ's standards. And that is why out of disappointment and revenge he betrayed Jesus Christ. That is why after he did it and after Jesus was dead, he felt so guilty and so remorseful that he killed himself. Disappointment with God which oftentimes manifests itself with disappointment in the church can be a very dangerous and deadly thing in the long run. One more person, person number seven is the one who is a trophy of God's grace. The man who never says anything in the Bible is one of the most famous people in Scripture. This guy named Lazarus. Verse nine, when the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him but also to see the Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priest 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. What a tender picture. They come not only to see the miracle worker but the miracle himself. They were believing in Jesus Christ because of Lazarus life. What had Lazarus done? Nothing. He had been rescued, redeemed, resuscitated by Jesus Christ. Just as you and I have been, he was a trophy of God's grace and people were saying you know if he can do these marvelous things for Lazarus and his family, he can do these things for me. And through Lazarus's witness, no doubt he was talking all about it to everybody you knew every went in these weeks that he'd been dead and now alive again. People were coming to faith in Jesus Christ and so the chief priest 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. That's a lot of true witness. A true witness for Jesus Christ and here it's the friends of Jesus Christ and his enemies and Jesus spent a lot of time in the last supper. We'll get to that in a few weeks. In chapter 15 and 16 warning the disciples that they will hate you because they hated me and they will persecute you because they've persecuted me. They will hate us without a cause. Listen to this. And the day will come he said, when some will think that by putting you to death they are doing service to God which is exactly what would happen to Jesus Christ in six days. There they are. The same kind of people in your life as in Christ's life. Fair weather friends, resentful antagonists, disappointed people, fearful leaders, good friends, angry superiors, and a few who love us. I'm thankful for them. We're not for them. I'd be a frustrated, unconverted, worn out, army colonel, maybe a general. All right, I'm sorry. Wait a minute. For my detractor is probably just a captain. But because of their work I stand before you today with a different calling and a different army and a different career. So it was with Jesus Christ. Luke in the book of Acts says, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man attested you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him. In your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan in four knowledge of God you crucified and killed by the hands of longness men. But God raised him up, losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus Christ. Who you anointed? Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, long with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever God's hand and God's plan had predestined to take place. These people look like they were trying to do Jesus harm. They were trying to save Jesus's life. They were fair with their friends and detractors and conspirators and lovers and witnesses. But you know they were never able to change what God had predestined to do through Jesus Christ for the sin of the world. And they can't affect that change now. We can never change who Jesus is regardless of how we see him and what we want him to be. He is what he has said repeatedly in this gospel. He is the one sent from God to save us from our sins. He will never be more or less than that. The only thing we can change is how we see him and what we do with him. That is the question I have for you. What are you going to do with this Jesus Christ? Let's pray. Father we want to thank you for your sovereign plan and power for your sovereign grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. We thank you even for the things that happened to him that came together to cause his untimely death all in your timing. This great tragedy which became your great blessing, this travesty of justice by which you judged sinners and made them righteous and innocent before you. We thank you for your inscrutable wisdom in sending us Jesus Christ and for your great love of the world so that we who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life. But we ask you to do this morning's to work in our hearts and minds to change our opinions about Jesus Christ so that we become those who love him, who waste our lives on him, who pour out upon in the fragrance of our own devotion and duty and our own worship and work, who are trophies of grace and witnesses to all that God can do for the sinner who embraces the living biblical Christ. Give us the faith, the humility, the repentance to turn from our false Christ to the living in real Jesus and in doing so, cause us to believe, teach us how to trust and strengthen us to follow Jesus and endure to the end that we might be saved. This we would pray and ask in Jesus name