Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello. I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the gospel. We are studying the event. The plot to kill Jesus and Caiaphas prophecy. This is found in John, chapter eleven, verse. And we'll be reading from verse 45 to the end of the chapter. Follow along with us.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Many of the Jews, therefore. Who had come with Mary. And had seen what he did.
Believed in him. 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. And said.
What are we to do?
For this man performs many signs.
If we let him go on like this, everyone would believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away 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. 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. And not for the nation only. But also together into one. The children of God. Who are scattered abroad.
So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: 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. 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. What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all. Now, the chief priests and the Pharisees. Had given orders that if anyone knew where he was. They should let them know. So that they might arrest him.
So we have this result of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. That was the last event we looked at. And because this. Some who were there ran and told the Pharisees or religious leaders. What Jesus had done. And now they're gathered around trying to figure out what they're going to do. Why are they so afraid of Jesus raising people from the dead?
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Because that was a very powerful sign.
It was a miracle as a sign that he's Messiah. And everyone was looking or expecting for Messiah to come.
And that will take over the hearts of the people. The masses will follow Jesus Christ. And they, the spiritual leaders, will lose their power. Yeah, it was somehow a power struggle. But it seems that a layer on top of that was their very deep interest, to save the nation.
What do we mean by this expression? The Romans had conquered Palestine about 60 something years before Jesus Christ, practically. They conquered Israel. They made it into a roman province called Palestine, and now they have some autonomy, but not that much.
And they were afraid of losing it completely and become just an integral part of the roman empire and their nation and their dreams and their temple will disappear.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: It's interesting, they all were looking for a Messiah who would come. And still to this day, the jewish nation is looking for the Messiah to come and to restore Israel as a nation.
So they were looking for a Messiah who would come in, who would free them from the Romans. And here, where there's a messiah, someone claiming to be the messiah, they're afraid that they're going to be removed from the Romans, that, you know, they're not ready to be separated.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Sometimes we ask something from God, and when God is responding to our prayers, providing the answer, we do not embrace it. Why? Because in between, we have developed in our mind our own way out, our own plan of salvation for that situation.
And I think this is very similar to the story of Abraham from the Old Testament. God had a plan for him to make him the father of many nations, the father of all believers, and he believed God. But after a while, he took that plan into his own hands. He started dreaming how to fulfill that plan. And he said, my wife is too old. We do not have kids. So how about if I have a son with my servant, a non jewish lady who did not receive that promise?
And you see, all the problems we have today, especially in the Middle east, is because Abraham tried to solve, to reach the same destination as God promised him. But he took the process into his own hands.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
Caiaphas makes this claim that it is better that one man should die than for a nation to perish.
Is that true? Is it better, you know, let's step outside of the Messiah. Let's step outside of this story. Is it better that one person died to save a whole nation?
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Somehow this is the foundation of the plan of redemption. So instead of us all humanity dying, all of us, one by one, it is better for one to die for us and believing in him. His death is being appropriated to us by faith.
This principle was used throughout history to sacrifice one person and to save a larger group or the majority.
It has some practical wisdom, but I think here is primarily the spiritual dimension that is being emphasized.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: It's interesting that when we think about the founding of America, the idea here was to protect the minority, to protect the one that, you know, with religious freedom, we have the ability to worship how we choose, and that someone who chose to worship in a way that others didn't had freedom and protection. And so it's the that built or fostered a spiritual atmosphere that allowed spiritual awakenings to happen and people to draw close. I think they're, as you said, this is looking at the spiritual. But we as christians have a part in making sure that the minority is protected, that people have the ability to use their free will, that they're not forced into something, even if we do not agree with what they choose.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: We should not sacrifice a minority for the benefit of the majority or for the benefit of the nation.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: And so here this is a similar situation but a different result, that one man is laying down his life so that all of humanity might have eternal life.
And that's just a beautiful thought there.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: And it's very interesting that this idea comes from the mouth of a person who wants to kill Jesus Christ.
And that man, even if being a high priest, by his desire and devising that plan to kill Jesus Christ, he was resembling the character of the enemy. Because Satan is as, according to John chapter 844, he's a liar and he is a murderer from the beginning. And everyone who designs these kind of plans, who harbors these ideas, that person is an agent of Satan.
And now the question is, how come that someone who is in Satan's pocket, he's being used by Satan like a puppet, can say that beautiful prophecy? Because under the inspiration, John, the writer of the gospel, said that he was prophesying. So how come that such a bad person can be used by God as a spokesperson to say a prophecy?
[00:10:00] Speaker A: Well, and we find this in many different places in the Bible, where God uses the enemy of Israel or the enemy of God's people to either prophesy or protect or act in a way that would benefit God's people?
I think a perfect example of the prophecy would be Balaam. You know, Balaam goes with the intent to curse God's people, but is not able to keeps blessing God's people over and over.
And God allows evil people to step in and help for the benefit of all of us. Well, when we look at Nebuchadnezzar, when he besieged Jerusalem, he was sent by God, and we would look at him as an evil person if we were on the inside.
But looking at his whole life, I hope to see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven. I can't wait to be there. And talk with him and be present with him.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And about Cyrus, one of the successor of Nebuchadnezzar, it's called my servant. God calls him my servant Cyrus.
It's very interesting how God can use everyone to fulfill a component or an immediate goal in the plan of redemption, but would be a day of judgment when God will decide based on our relationship with him, based on how we align our lives with those principles of God's character. God will design our final destiny.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: The other thing I think about is we look at Caiaphas, we look at Hitler, we look at these figures, Osama bin Laden in history, and Herod. Yeah, Herod, we say, these are evil people.
I'm not as bad as them, but really, we are just as bad.
It's my sins that Jesus went to the cross for and died. He didn't die because of the cross, because nails were in his hands, or he couldn't breathe. He was suffocating. He didn't die from any of that. He died from the burden of sin. And it was my sins that he died from and your sins that he died from. And I think that's critical to remember that.
It's easy to look at Caiaphas and the religious leaders and paint them out as the bad guys, but we are better, but we're not. We're sinners in need of a savior just the same. They are.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: It is like that story from one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, Emil Brunner, when two people took a train and they were in the same compartment, and one was nicely dressed, very elegant businessperson, and the other one was a peasant smelling, didn't behave well. And the question was, what's the difference between them? And the answer was, both of them took the wrong train, wrong direction. So in the same way, what is important is, are we moving in the right direction in life? Are we getting closer to God? And in this situation, one day we're going to meet the Lord face to face, or we might be moving in the wrong direction, like taking life into our own hands, as Abraham did, as Caiaphas did, trying maybe to accomplish something good for the benefit of others or the nation, but in fact, extinguishing or destroying God's plan, because they are moving the opposite direction.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: So being disconnected from God can lead us to work against God when we think we're working for him. And I think this gets back to the Bible reading 365. The whole point of this podcast is to get each and every one of us in a daily habit of reading God's word of spending time with him. Because if we don't do that, if we get to a place where we stop, we might still consider ourselves religious.
But we can make these very same mistakes. We can claim to stand for Jesus when Jesus is on the other side.
And I think this is something we need to be very careful about.
Let us pray. Father God, as we look at Caiaphas prophecy here as statements, he thought he was doing what was right. He thought he was saving a nation, your nation, God's people.
But that, obviously, Father, was not the plan that he had.
Jesus came and laid down his life, that we might have eternal life. Yes, one man died for all, not just the nation, but the whole world.
But, father, I pray that we will stay connected with you each and every day. That we may not be like Balaam or Caiaphas, that we may not stand against you when we think we're fighting for you.
I pray that we will cling tight to your word and never rely on our own opinions. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
