The Jewish leaders' fear of Jesus' growing popularity and the potential Roman intervention led them to plot his death, demonstrating hypocrisy as they purified themselves while harboring murderous intent. Caiaphas, the high priest, prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, a truth the leaders failed to grasp as they sought to preserve their own power and nation. It highlights the contrast between the leaders' self-preservation and Jesus' divine purpose, emphasizing that rejecting Christ leads to destruction, while accepting him brings peace and salvation. The message concludes by urging listeners to choose Christ, the living Savior, and embrace his resurrection, which offers hope and eternal life unlike other religions.
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It would be wonderful. Shall we turn to our Bibles then to John chapter six, John chapter eleven of us? And we read verse forty-six. Verse forty-six. But some of them went their ways to the parodies, that's after the Lord raised Lazarus. and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees, a council, noticed that. They called us as well as the Sanhedrin together, and said, What do we? For this man doeth many miracles. Firstly, let him doth alone. All men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.
One of their men, Caiaphas, being the high priest, that same year, said unto them, We know nothing at all. Period. We didn't know much. Nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. A mistake being not of himself, but being high priest. That year he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth they took counsel together to put him to death.
Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but went sent into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples. And the Jews passed over was my hand, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem, before the passed over. to purify themselves. Notice that bit of hypothesis. They're going to purify their bodies. Now notice what follows. Then soft say for Jesus and shake among themselves as they sit in the temple. What they did? That he will not come to the feet. Now don't the feet feet and the Pharisees.
And these are the ones who have just purified themselves. Had given a commandment that if any man should know Where he where, that is the Lord Jesus, he should show us that they might come and take him. They want to kill him. See, they're purifying their body and murders in their heart. They're going to murder the Lord Jesus Christ. What hypothesis you have in your kingdom. Thank you, they made a commandment all at all. God made a commandment. Those shall not kill. But the two pieces in verse fifty-seven, they gave a commandment. the price of the apprehended and took to death. What hypocrisy do you see in this incident?
Do you know any of your Bible or get the Bible open at five when they refer to it? That's not weird. So lastly, we were speaking on the raising of Nazareth from the dead, that might be triumph over death, and how the Lord Jesus with his mighty, majestic voice said and taught that Nazareth did. And you'll notice this morning how Christ raised up his terror. And then over in the act he raises up witnesses to speak of himself and his resurrection. You have another passage, an emergency Jewish council.
It would seem almost that someone had pressed the panic button. Here is a man. And all of a sudden he appears upon the scene, he performs all kinds of miracles, and people gather around him and follow him. His influence is increasing, his fame is spreading, his miracles now are being believed even by his enemies. He tried to play down his miracles for a while, but now even his enemies have got to admit, if man do it many miracles. What can you do in a case like this? If this thing continues, all old population are going to follow this man, it's going to be hard.
Enough. Deceasing public pain would mean one thing, they're going to crown them as they're king. That was the deepest desire of all Jews in the Old Testament. Here the Jewish nation is in bondage to Rome. under the slavery of Rome. They had been under other Gentile powers with Babylonians, Mediathians, Grecians, and now the Romans. They were upset. And the desire of the Jews was that someone could come and deliver them from this oppression. Well, one just came. The Lord Jesus came. And they want to put them to death. They want a crucifixion.
Well, the very one who had come to deliver them from the bondage. But they crucified him. And he realizes now that this man will let him alone, more people will gather to him, and if he is recognized as their leader, no one will realize the threat to her power and to liquidate the whole outset. And Paul leaves. will be destroyed by Rome. They'll come and take away our faithful nation. How say these people are active. Think of all these nations in the world.
If all the nations had given Christ the place that he deserved and belonged to him, and has the power to execute the will of God, Our country would not be in the mess. The world would not be in the mess of him today. Here they were in bondage alone. They wanted to get rid of this man. He was going to deliver. Not only from the bondage of the gold, but from the bondage of the sea. Would they have more bondage if they let this man live? Or would they have less?
Less. He would have kept them free. He is the only one who could have delivered them from Rome and delivered them from their sins. Yet they say, let's put them to death. Yet the cause is teaching quack their theology. And it's told their high gospel of this. And this irresistible carpenter threatens to raise off their security. Something has got to be done. Away with this man will not have him to reign over us. How strange it is today that many women and even nations, they don't want the Lord Jesus.
To make their choice, nineteen hundred years ago, away with this man, just in case he stayed, the only one who can bring peace into a human heart, the only one who can take the control of the government. and establishing in peace. And this is the crucifier. And this world has made nothing but bloodshed and war ever since. They've had their choice. Jesus or their abbot, they said, couldn't by Jesus live it unto us. For that is the murderer and the robberies. And they've had murderers and robbers over this. And I'll tell you, this country and this world is in the midst.
I know the other three are, but his world is not a Christian. But that man's got some sense. I wish that God would have preached a lot of preachers would present the picture, the world picture, and the natural picture, the natural picture that he presents in his heart. Talking about the changes that do, the tracing that makes it, in almost every aspect. Yes, they see the handwriting on the wall. They don't know a string about Bible prophecy. The days are dark, and our only hope is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Must we have this country coming together? To put to an end the night of the ministry of the man Christ Jesus. A necessary decision, they said. What do we do? What shall we do? Here this man is growing in popularity. People are following him. More defeats are following him. And we can't even stop him. And these two men, leaders of Israel, gathered together. They call a council. He may say, one of them did. He's got to make the decision. His power should not be denied.
He had plenty of evidence of that. He farmed the sea. He cleansed the leopards. He opened the eyes of the blind. He cast out demons. He turned water into wine. And now he takes over and delivers a man's head for days. He delivers him from the flesh of death. And that was the last from the death of all these demonstrations of power they couldn't get over. So why didn't they accept it? if the evidence that his power was so convincing. No. That was the hatred of the human heart toward the man who Christ be.
So his power could not be denied, nor his preaching could be forgotten. He could not be silent. He reached their consciences. Nothing about life. He could not be arrested. And two occasions they tried to arrest him in the Central, and he just walked through the midst of him, and led his way. This town folk grabbed him and took him over to the brow of the hill. They were going to cast him over. When they got him to the brow of the hill, their hands went limp, and he turned around and walked through them, and led his way. On two occasions they took him.
cut stones before them, that one hit its mark. And here you find them. He goes into a quiet countryside, knowing what the country was going to do. You'll be afraid of these people. No. His power had not yet come, and no one could cut the head of his head, for Jesus partying with a stone or nail him to the cross. Until the most of God had sight, then his son would die upon the cross. So they couldn't stop his preaching. If also his presence should not be any longer tolerated, had this man around, he changed it.
If he let this man know, the Romans would come and take away our place, our nation. They were suffering under Rome, and here's one who has come and delivered them from gold and delivered them from all their sins and yet they want to put this man to death. How should this can the human heart and mind be? The only one that can give you peace, the only one who can give you rest, and deliver you from the burdens that lie upon your heart. is a man quite deep.
Today, like this book, his resurrection is a big commercial ghost. People can't listen about the written Christ at God's right hand. Millions are making millions of dollars out of the resurrection that reached upon him. You don't really care about the power of a little man at God's right hand. The second scene, he raised himself. He raised Lazarus. He saw the motion at the end of that chapter. Now he raised himself. His death was natural. Submitting that when he breathed his last and his heart stopped, he died.
He was a dead man. That's natural. When your heart stopped and you stopped breathing, you're a dead man. John and so his death was unnatural. Not only was it natural, it was unnatural. Because he's a sinless man, and why should a man be sinless man die? Death is the ways of sin he did not sin. We know why we die, because it's death working in our bodies to bring forth through the other death. He had no sin working in his body. Why did he die? His death was unnatural. Napthus, a human man died when death had no dominion over him, no fame upon him.
His death was supernatural. He laid it down. He said, I have power to lay down my life. I have power to take it up again. This was not suicide. But a man today wants to end his life, he can use a pistol, he can jump in the lake, or he can take for it. But here's a man that has the power to just listen to it. He has the power to lay his life down. That's supernatural. And his death was supernatural. Freedom turned before the foundation of the world.
the Lamb slaved them before the foundation in the world. All these things were true of the Lord Jesus' son. Even the manner of this test had the Jews had their way, they would have shown them to death. The Old Testament in Psalm twenty two tells us in prophecy, they fear my hand and my feet. God even told him back then, a kind of death his son was going to die, not by stoning, but by crucifixion. None, no previous race, none of those powers we mentioned a while ago, you could have included the Philistines and all other countries, the Babylonians, the Medial Persians, the Greeks, they didn't have capital punishment by crucifixion.
It was told. to adopt this debt by crucifixion. And so it fits right in. The Jews have said, well, you're left in a stone. God says, no, you're not going to stone my son. He's going to be crucified at a war. He died the exact kind of death of the exact time and the exact place of the Bible as we live. This is supernatural. His resurrection is people in actual truth. He took it up again. I have power to lay down my life.
I have power to take my life up again. I know the Bible says time and time again, God raised him from the dead. But here you see his deity. He said, I have power to lay down my life. I have power to take it up again. He travels the Pharisees. You destroy this temple, deceiving him of his body. I'll raise it up on a third day. Christ's death was supernatural. His resurrection was supernatural too. He raised himself up. He took his time that morning in the resurrection morning when he arose.
And he just placed the linen neatly together, and the napkin by itself. And that was it. And he came out of the crew. She said, no hurling, no rush, no disorder. She had command and control of the whole situation. She said, I'm able to raise my step. Everything the Lord does is orderly, not haphazard. She raised himself from the dead. How wonderful. And I want you to hear this. Christ was raised from the dead in the very body that he was crucified on the cross with.
That same body rose in the dead. When he raised Lazarus from the dead, four days dead, yet Lazarus had the same features. They identified him, the sisters and all the others. They changed. To see Lazarus, whom the Lord had raised from the dead, chapter twelve, he was sitting on next Sunday, Jerry to have the feet, sitting beside, at that table, Lazarus, his teachers hadn't changed, nothing of what had changed. And the Lord Jesus, when he was saved from the dead, who raised himself from the dead, his teachers did not change.
His wife had not changed because Mary, supposing him to be the gardener. She said, Mary, Propona. She identified that voice immediately. She heard it previously when he passed out the demon. She recognized that voice from the resurrection morning, the same voice, the same tone, the same resonance. Ah, yes, his voice hadn't changed. It's not what he said. He said on the resurrection, Handle me and flee for a spirit hath not flesh and don't as you see me have.
He didn't say flesh and blood, flesh and bone. A spirit doesn't have blood. Before his resurrection, before his death, his life descended upon the cross. The life of the flesh is in the blood says God and I've given it upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul for it is the blood that makes it an atonement for the truth. But then he rose again. What was it that energized his body? The holy spirit of God. There wasn't one drop of blood in that resurrected body. Not one drop.
Old St. Romans read these words. And he was declared to be the son of God with power, by resurrection from among the dead, by the spirit of holiness. Just after he rose from the dead, it was the spirit. So replace the blood that God speaks of his human life, the spirit speaks of his eternal life. And that will be true with Scripture. when Christ comes and all redeems us order, our bodies will undergo a change. Yes, then our bodies will be pricked.
By His Spirit we will pricken our prior bodies or the bodies of our humiliation so they might be changed into the likeness of His own glory of God. There will be nothing about barriers after he rose from the dead he could appear in the midst of the door stifles the doors being shut he had a body a critical life body yet a body that could be handed he could only and see well should it have no flesh and bone if you see me have and karmus were so stifled doors locked the jews they met suddenly grouped in the upper room afraid that tripped up the leader while they thought he's free, I preach these two, they killed the leader, now they're going to kill his followers, and so they locked the door.
But the Lord disappeared right in the middle. He said, peace be unto you. This time Thomas was there. The Lord looked right at Thomas. I don't know whether any others told the Lord what Thomas had said. He looked at Thomas, he said, Thomas. You thither thy stranger thrust it into my hands, and take your fists and plunge it into my side where the spear went, and be not tasteless, but the leader. In other words, thou must make me suffer again. Offer no whom? My Lord, my God, the sight of those wounds is enough.
and promise it, my Lord, my God. Are you so unbelieving that you want to see the actual truth in the person of Christ? Do you actually want to see the whole you believe? You'll never be saved that way. You've got to believe the story. Faith comes by hearing, not hearing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You could only be saved by believing the record, the story that God gave you about his son, how he died, how he rose again, and why.
So wonderful on this occasion. What's the difference today we have Islamism, joy, genderism, Judaism? What's the difference between Christianity as we preach it? What is it that will be missed from these other religions? This one says, and this nullifies all them, and this justifies and commands Christianity. Christianity is the only religious body, if you want to use that term, that has a living head.
Islam doesn't have a living head. Muhammad's in his grave long ago. And neither does Buddhism. Buddha said, I don't know if you believe in symbolism. He said, well, he started it, I don't know who did. There's only one organization. And I don't like that word either. It's an organism. It's only one organism that has life and power. And that's what God And that's fifty annuities. They thought all the weeks of fifty annuities are in the living man of God's own hands.
You see the way that last week, I was going to say, my honor, to me about some tribals in some of these countries. I think it was like in Lear. That's all it is. They have professional mourning. And they have a funeral. They want to put on a good deal. to show the public how this man will begin. And they hire mourners just to follow the important game and carry on. Imagine that. You know, a missionary told this story. She said, his wife died. And he said to you, naturally, I knew where my wife had gone.
My little daughter knew. We had the funeral, given all two years, said. And the choir protested once we were in the seminary, and the missionary wife was buried. And the people of that country had one of these remittances, jindalism, Judaism. They said, why is this? These white people, these white people, Americans have a God that we don't have. Do you remember when our people die? But they don't remember.
They rejoice. That's it. We can rejoice. When loved ones die, if they die in Christ, they will meet them again. These poor people, the people that follow all these images, they have no such hope. That's the end. Don't believe in me and Parnase. Maybe my loved ones are dogs. Maybe the snake in the next room. But that could be known how one will be just like Christ. And then when Jesus comes into existence, night of death are wonderful.
This is the difference between Christianity and all these other limits. A living Christ or a living man at God's right hand. Christ has formed, he has a voice, and actually he performed the miracles, his time proved he was unbelieving disciples, that he was the same one who died on the cross. He didn't give me a piece of scripture in the Hundredfold, and I leave it. And he didn't make that. I don't believe that the moment he's teaching that when we go to heaven, we're going to have to have a fight. The Lord knows he abused him here. Now... But there you're going to have a body like him.
What a wonderful day. Now you come to the third scene. Lazarus, the Lord raised Lazarus. The Lord raised himself. Now he's raising up with me. The scene changes now. A few months have passed. Christ is crucified. He rose. He ascended up to heaven. Before he left. He gave a commission. And you can find this commission if you want to read it. It's a connection with his old going into all the world and teaching the doctrine. But he shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost will come upon you.
And he shall be witnesses unto me, dwelt in Jerusalem and all the here in Samaria and the othermost part of the world. Now he's raising up the fruit, the witness. should the hypnotist be the truth, that go to the ends of the earth and tell the stories of his birth? Yes, that's wonderful, but that's not enough. Are there sinless life? Yes, but that's not enough. Or is death? Yes, but that's not enough. If all we had to tell is that to be like these other movements, our hope would be in the grave.
He always says, go and tell about my resurrection. That's what two witnesses, I'm not referring to Jehovah's Witnesses, I wouldn't give a time for that. I'm talking about those who were born again. And what's their message? God has raised up witnesses for nineteen hundred years. And all I am here this morning and anybody else who's teaching the gospel is the truth about the risen Christ. Witnesses of his resurrection. So wonderful. Witnesses of his resurrection. If you want to turn over, I'm not going to ask of you now.
When you get home, you can do it. In chapter five of Acts, mortgages were being saved, mortgages were being healed, the very shadow of Peter healed some folks, the fire of the spirit was rushing, the fire of the risen Christ was being preached. The high priest in the Sanhedrin meets again at now. It is the same time. They met after Lazarus was raised. They were infuriated about what Christ was doing in his popularity. A night will rent his eyes out round up the end of that. But no, behold, yet are men being raised up and their priesthood setting to life.
And their supreme power is accompanying these men. and preaching. And so the raising of witness declared his resurrection. Just so it won't save us as miraculous as it was. Just so that life won't save us. He didn't come to be an example. Just death won't save us. Only his risen life. This isn't life. And if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And this is what the early church preached, and lived. And this is what infuriated that same group of men. Say, do with me again. Now I was wonderful at New Year's, that passage of... They were so indignant they threw the apostles in the jail. Put them in jail. If you know angels go to jail, do you know that? An angel went and dropped those apostles out of jail. We have the key. The next day, the Sam Houston met again. Now they're going to bring those men in before them and they're going to sentence them.
So they send... the drive, the office, go and bring those cow to men in here. They were going to judge them. And then men go and come back and say, they're not in jail. He found you locked, and all the doors were locked, the gates were locked, and all the guys and the police shut the sign off the men. Then they were treated. Then a man comes running into the court and he says, you know, those men he couldn't go without their preaching. They're in the temple preaching. Now this God is.
And so they brought them without violence, he says. They brought them without violence. This is getting dangerous. Hear this man, Jesus. He thought these are three of them. Now he's alive. And these men who follow, they didn't hope he was alive. They heard he was alive. But here is evidence. Miracles are being performed in his name. For me, gentlemen, preaching his resurrection. They are power. They are seeing miracles done. And so they stand before us.
And of course, they told us, don't these preach any more in this man's name. I love what Peter did on this occasion. If you're not going to read the story about what Peter did, these are some of Peter's words before the council. And if you want to read us a letter over in verses twenty-nine, thirty-two of Acts five. He begins with the person of the Lord Jesus. He says, whom ye slew and hang on the tree. For that went home. He's charging this to his son, Peter. He's charging this council of men.
This man, Peter? It wasn't the Romans who crucified him as God, Peter. It was you. Who you slew and hang on a tree? Peter pulled the sword right into the handle, and he twisted the sword. You are the mercies of this man, Paul, Jesus. and whom he threw it, hanged on that tree, and God has exalted it. God has treated that one on his own right hand. God has accepted him in all his glory and power. And he is a prince, and he is a savior.
Here is people are preaching to this country. This man is a prince, he is a savior. Some people only want him as a savior. They don't want him as a prince. If you go together, you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, he shall be your Lord, your Prince. And this is the message of those witnesses God has raised up, the day of Prince and the Savior. And this is the message, Jesus says, we are the free. To give the mission of repentance and the mission of This is the message of the risen Christ, to me, Peter, through my mouth, to repent, that you might receive the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Two wonderful things. And here are two things that go together. Not only a prince and savior go together, but a repentance and remission go together. You can't get remission of your sins until you repent. And when you do repent, acknowledge the sinner, take Christ, the living Christ, who is the Savior, then you will have your sins forgiven, and the seal of that redeem, the spirit of God, will take up as a gold in your heart. Can you tell me a happier sin? Is it to take place with you this morning on this Easter Sunday, than to have all your sins forgiven, and have peace in your heart, whatever more.
And enthroned in your heart the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell one before all this is. You know there are three things in this pattern. You have noticed this. The result of Peter's message, they were cut to the heart. And that really means they were strong food. Peter's words were just like a sword, like a knife. It's cut right into the heart of those men on that country. But you can resist with it. You can oppose it, resist it, or use it.
God wants you to use it. Here you find first of the touch of the heart. And then, pray, you get out of the face, They didn't accept it. Her voice went home and they heard at the same time they wouldn't hear. And then they saw the door this morning with a drop of death, conviction. You are being convinced of a risen Christ at God's right hand. If you resist that, you will be cut up. But if you give, you will become with God's salvation, eternal life, and the forgiveness of all your sins.
The faith is Lord. If you have no need for God, if you study that passage, define these three things. Hostility, neutrality, cooperation. Hostility, on the part of those religious leaders, they were hostile. That's fighting against God. He tells her ideas. She says, how wonderful. He says, we think it right for us, bearing the right in the sight of God to heart and unto ye men, more than unto God. He says that. And one ought to obey God. Thou the name that's repeated it.
And one ought to obey left the root. What I am saying is in God. you're not rejecting me. The Lord Jesus says, he rejected me, he that rejected you. He rejected me. If my message is from the Bible, then there's some talk. Then the question is between me and God, not between me and me. If it's a case of some argument, then it is an argument between man and man. But when it comes to scripture, it's an argument between me and the Godness of the earth. So to see if there is hostility Peter says, it's hard for you to fight against God.
Try. You have made sense. God holds your dress in his hand, and all he's got to do is keep it under God. That's all. Hospitality. Neutrality. What does Dr. Gamaliel say there? Have thou nothing to do with these men? Don't come to any decision right now. I just let it pass neutrality. People today want to be neutral. Well, it sounds good. And here they are. They're between the world and the Lord. They look at the Lord.
They look at the world. They look at the world. They look at the world where they stand on the fence. doing absolutely nothing as the days are ticking by and weeks and months and years are ticking by in one of these days till you walk the fence mid to fall off and then time for the long time. Two fellows. The third is cooperation. They believe. They talk and they treat Jesus Christ. That's it. That's cooperation. When I accepted Christ at the age of ninety, I got off the fence. I accepted Christ.
I'd been on the fence long enough. I took Christ at my feet. I cooperated with God. I believed the story of the resurrection, the resurrection of Christ, his certain life, and his true coming again. That's the answer to this poor thing that grew a year. Yes, I believe it. The result was a peace came into my heart. And since then, I taught it, I preached it. And I've seen a lot of people come to know Christ, and I haven't found one that reached me. That's regrettable. I've had a lot of people come up and tell me they've got pain, meaning they haven't.
I haven't had one thought of a day. I profess to accept Christ that you are needed. And I'm sorry I did. I'm a giant get out of it. Why do you regret it? Maybe you didn't get the real thing. Nobody gets the real thing when you get this thing. If you really have time, you have them, you have them, whatever. You may fail him, but he won't fail you. That's the point. It's all of this. Here you come, here you come. to Christ this morning, a living Savior. He raised up Lazarus.
He raised up himself. He raised up the Spirit to prepare to meet the God. Will you come to Christ? Will you make such a decision this morning? God help you, please. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, be of thy blessing upon thy holy word. and thank you for our written, glorified, true, tongue, and law. Joseph up to us today to rejoice in the fact we know him, not a living, but a Savior, a living Savior. Do not with some heart. He will sing for as lively as it is, and let Christ enter while in me.
Say no. He asked that in his early and precious name, amen. shall we sing from fifty-five? In verse fifty-five, softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals he's waking and watching, watching for you, you, put yourself in there, you and for me. When he can sing, he's soft and bright, some and tell it, whether it be this morning or some other time, come and and just like this was written.