Have I merely been around the truth… or have I actually surrendered to it?

1.Division

2.Rejection

3.Decision

4.Revelation

5.Execution

6.Expectation

1. DIVISION

John 11:45-46 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

PROXIMITY DOES NOT EQUAL PARTNERSHIP

JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE IS NEAR YOU DOESN’T MEAN SOMEONE IS FOR YOU

2. REJECTION

John 11:47-8 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

They don’t reject Jesus because He lacks power—but because He threatens theirs.

….and we do the same thing.

Where am I close enough to Jesus to see what He’s doing,, but too committed to myself to surrender to it?

3.Decision

John 11:49-50 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

4.Revelation

John 11:51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year heprophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.

Caiaphas meant political survival.

God meant eternal salvation

One man…

dying for the many…

to bring them into one.

5.Execution

John 11:53-54  So from that day on they plotted to take his life.54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

When truth is repeatedly resisted, the heart doesn’t stay neutral—it hardens.

6.Expectation

John 11:55-56  When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” 57 But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.