If you're familiar with the Bible at all, you'll recognize John 11 as the account of Lazarus being raised from the dead. The book of John is written with a series of sign miracles, and John has an intention with every one of the miracles that he records of Christ. And in chapter 11, we come to a climax of these miracles. The raising of Lazarus is the final of Jesus' major public And it's the final one for a reason, because it's climactic. And what we learned last week is that in raising Lazarus from the dead, as a consequence, Jesus strengthened the faith of his disciples and he caused others to believe as a consequence of that. But as we're going to see this morning, faith was not the only response to this miracle. John chapter 11, verse 45. It says, many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, that is, saw that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, believed in Jesus. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. And so remember that ever since Jesus launched his earthly ministry, the Jewish leadership, the chief priests, the Pharisees have been doing everything they can to stop him. They're dismayed by his growing influence, which is shocking to some because this is the religious class. These are the religious men. And here they are opposing Jesus. Up until this point, they've sought to publicly discredit Jesus. They've tried to prod him into debate. Remember, they tried to ask him riddle-like questions, hoping that he would answer wrong. They've had men constantly watching him, hoping to catch him in something worthy of prosecution. Remember, they defamed Jesus as a Sabbath-breaker. They've accused him of blasphemy. Remember, they've tried to entrap him. They tried to get him to say something that seems seditious so they could report him to the Romans. They've claimed he's demon-possessed. They've intimidated anyone who would follow him, threatening them with excommunication. And on multiple occasions, they frankly just out and out threatened him with death. But what we're learning is that it seems the more the Jewish leaders try to stop Jesus, the more popular he becomes. And now it appears that when Lazarus came to life, came out of that tomb, it appears that any hopes the Jewish leadership had of stopping Jesus have died. So Lazarus, the funeral had taken place, the mourning was ongoing, the crowds were gathering, everyone knew that Lazarus had been dead for four days, decomposition was already settling in, and here Jesus speaks the words and Lazarus walks out of the tomb. Despite all the Jewish leadership and their efforts, despite all the efforts of the Jewish leadership, Jesus was more popular than ever. So panic is setting in. Now look in John 11, verse 47. It says, So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, What are we to do? The NIV translates it, What are we accomplishing? 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 away both our place and our nation." Fear and panic settling in. This is an emergency convening of the council, it says. What's the council? This is also known as the Sanhedrin. 71 members of Jewish leadership. This is the supreme council in Jerusalem. These are men who wield religious authority and political authority and judicial authority over the Jewish people, over the Jewish people under Roman authority, under Roman oversight. This council included priests, wealthy lay leaders, scribes, and here they're having an emergency meeting. This council consists of both Pharisees and Sadducees. We've learned a lot about those two groups through the Gospel of John. However, the Sadducees far outnumbered the Pharisees, probably about 70-30. Remember, the Sadducees were the priestly class. They're the ones that oversaw the temple. So when Jesus came and he overthrew the tables, remember that? He goes to the temple, he cleanses the temple, overthrows the tables, and he casts out all the money changers. He gets a whip, basically, and drives them out of the temple. You know who that would have offended mostly? The Sadducees. That's their temple operations. That's their money-making endeavor. And so the Sadducees were those who were the priestly class who oversaw the temple and the operations. The Pharisees were the biblical scholars. The power and the authority and the influence of the Pharisees surrounded the synagogue. The power and authority and influence of the Sadducees really revolved around the temple, while the influence of the Pharisees, again, was seen in the day-to-day lives of the people. They're kind of like more on a popular level. The Sadducees were those that you're going to see in and around the temple. Beyond that, the council that's having an emergency meeting here is led by a high priest who himself is a Sadducee. And so the Sadducees really hold the power here. According to our text, these men, again, are in full-on panic mode. What are we to do, they said. Listen, it seems like everything they've tried at this point has come back to bite them. Everything they've tried at this point has failed. They just can't stop Christ. They've been trying to put a lid on the news of Jesus' miracles, and it turns out, however, that when Jesus is around, you can't even keep dead people in the grave. Verse 48, if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe. Now notice, the discussion here isn't upon the amazing signs. It's not upon the miracles. That's not the discussion. But what they're discussing is how the miracles have put their power or their position or their prestige in danger. Now imagine it, if you saw somebody rise from the grave, all you could talk about is the miracle. This is amazing. What kind of man can do this? They look at it through that lens of themselves, their power, their prestige, and all they can see is that if this continues, we're going to lose our place. The fear is that the messianic movement will get off the ground. If that happens, the Romans are going to get wind of it. If the Romans get wind of people talking about a king, they're going to come and they're just going to take away our temple, they're going to take away the measure of autonomy they've given us, and the Sadducees and others are saying we're going to just lose all of our power, all of our influence. Again, the Sanhedrin, this council, wielded authority only insofar as Rome allowed it. The high priest, who we're going to meet in a moment, who led the council, he was a Roman appointee. The high priest was always one that Rome approved of. And I can guarantee you the high priest was not chosen because he was the godliest among the priests. The council here is in panic because they know how tenuous their existence is. The high priest's role was to constantly keep the people in order and appease Rome. And so at this moment, this council does not care about scriptural truth. They don't care about miraculous signs. They don't care about spiritual realities. Their only concern is power and influence. Which is true, frankly, of many who find themselves in positions as religious leaders. And so they only care that the temple operations can keep going. Why? Well, in part, because, again, that's the source of their power, but it's also their source of wealth. They're getting rich off of this stuff. Which, again, is not uncommon within religious circles. With the raising of Lazarus, it's clear that things are not going their way. Things are slipping out of their hands. With their future in question, they decide to concoct a final scheme to get rid of Jesus once and for all, as we're going to see in a moment. In their fear and panic and pride, they decide that they need a better scheme to kill Jesus. There's only one problem, however. What's been abundantly clear throughout all the years of Jesus' earthly ministry, again, his earthly ministry is only three years, is that God wasn't working through their scheming, but it appears as if God is working through Christ's ministry. And this is where we find a major lesson from this text. Fear, panic, pride often lead us to scheme, but God's sovereign plan will always stand. A few weeks ago, we saw the scheming of another group of Jewish leaders, those Jews who are hoping for a militaristic messiah. those Jews who wanted a Christ to come to overthrow the Romans. They were so convinced that this was God's will for them, so convinced that it was not God's will for them to be under Roman rule. How could God allow a godly minority to exist under the authority of a godless majority? Surely that cannot be God's will. That's their thinking. And so they were willing to do anything to bring about an earthly kingdom which saw Rome overthrown. They wanted to see a theocracy established. These zealots and even zealous Pharisees, again, could not accept that this could conceivably be God's will, and so they sought to artificially bring about an earthly kingdom. At one point, Jesus has to escape a crowd because they want to make him a king by force. That's those nationalistic tendencies, trying to bring about God's kingdom via earthly scheming. Now in John 11, we find another contingent of the Jewish leadership who had their own vision for the future and their own schemes to bring it about. Verse 48, again, if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. The Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. 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." And so here we meet a man named Caiaphas. is actually Joseph Caiaphas. He was the son-in-law of the previous high priest, Annas. And if you read the New Testament, for some reason it appears as if Annas is holding on to some of the authority of high priest, even though his son-in-law is the new high priest. So there's an interesting dynamic there. But this is Caiaphas. He's appointed by Rome as high priest in about AD 18. Interestingly, in 1990, there was an ossuary found, or a bone box found, with the inscription, Joseph, son of Caiaphas, which validates the biblical history. As high priest, Caiaphas functioned as sort of a liaison between Rome and the Jewish people. Again, he's installed by Rome, expected to look out for Roman interest and to keep the peace. Due to the constant tensions between Rome and the Jews, this was always a delicate balancing act. He had to appease Rome while never appearing to be a traitor to his people. Caiaphas, according to all indications, was very good at that. He was very politically shrewd. He knew how to control the people. He was high priest for 18 years, which is a very long tenure for a high priest. So he proved to be good at his job. He kept the Romans happy and kept the people subdued. that Caiaphas was respected is clear from our passage, because look at how he responds to his fellow council members. He says to them, remember, they're fearful, they're panicking, what are we gonna do? Nothing we're doing is working, and he says, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it's better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. He's calling them all out. He's saying to these rich, influential Jewish leaders, that they're all ignorant fools. You guys don't know anything. They're panicked over what was unfolding all around them, and he insults them for it. In his mind, everything's under control. Where did that confidence come from? He has a plan. That's where the confidence came from. He's got a scheme. What's the plan? It's better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish." In other words, why are you fretting? This movement's not going anywhere. His popularity's not going to go any further because we're going to kill him. In that moment, Caiaphas was willing to deny all the miraculous evidence, ignore all scriptural truth, turn a blind eye to the clear spiritual realities unfolding all around him in order to ensure that his future looked exactly the way he wanted it to look. is clear to any objective onlooker that God was at work through Jesus and not through the religious leaders. It should have been clear to anyone who knew the scriptures that the word of God was being fulfilled by Jesus and not by the religious leaders. All the evidence was saying that God was working one way, but Caiaphas was determined to see matters play out differently. So, he's just going to scheme to make it happen. He's got a plan. This is the age-old story. of men and women who reject God's sovereign will and take matters into their own hands in order to forge their own futures. Now, I hesitate to make a personal application here, because I don't think any of us here are as guilty to the extreme of Caiaphas in our passage. However, there is an element of this in which we can see ourselves. When life veers off course, when the future seems to be unfolding in a way that we don't want it to unfold, we frankly start scheming too. We look at life and say, this is not how my life ought to be. This isn't what I deserve. This isn't how life should happen. But when plans flop, we snatch control from God's hands. We chase our own will with our own plans instead of trusting God. Instead of trusting God in His way and resting in His means to bring about His will. Sometimes we do it for the same reasons as the men in our passage. Fear, panic, or pride. We're fearful for tomorrow, we scramble for security, we're panicked over circumstances, and so we fight to change those circumstances. We're prideful, so we're discontent with what God has done in our lives, and there are many ways and reasons that we scheme. Regardless of the motivations, the point is, what we're going to learn from Caiaphas and the Jewish leaders, is that human scheming never accomplishes God's will. Human scheming also never thwarts God's will. Proverbs 19.21 says, Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of Yahweh that will stand. So Caiaphas here, like his fellow council members, is fearful. If this Jesus as Messiah movement continues, it's gonna raise the ire of the Romans, it's gonna invite further oppression. The fear was that the Romans would see their religion as fomenting revolution, and so they're gonna lose their religious freedom. Caiaphas, however, has proven to be an expert at placating the Romans. And so, he's gonna put his plan in place. He's gonna scheme to make sure that doesn't happen. The issue with Caiaphas, and you say, well, maybe he's just politically shrewd. He just knows how to get along, to get along. You know, you're under a oppressive pagan government, and so you're going to have to make some compromises, right? I mean, you could make that case. But as already mentioned, Caiaphas's position was a Roman appointment. He's not just a religious ruler, but a political appointee. And so, his religious leadership was always colored by Roman interests. Further, because of Roman rule, Caiaphas and previous high priests always had a mandate to quash any popular messianic movements. They had a mandate to downplay any biblical prophecies that looked towards a Messiah. Further, the corruption of the temple into this money-making endeavor put pressure on them to keep the coffers full because they would give money to Rome. And so Rome had an interest in the temple continuing the way that it was. And so all these pressures are on Caiaphas at this moment. But here's the thing. As a consequence of all the compromise that Caiaphas had to bring about in order to placate the Romans, the Judaism that Caiaphas is overseeing is a compromised Judaism. It's a Judaism robbed of all messianic hope. It's a Judaism robbed of any allegiance to Yahweh alone. The religion that Caiaphas is scheming so hard to protect here is one that has become an empty shell of itself. This is one shaped more by the Roman overlords than Scripture. And so, here we learn something. In situations where we find ourselves as a religious minority in the midst of a pagan or unbelieving majority, there are some potential imbalances with how we respond to those situations. We've already talked about the Zealots and the Zealous Pharisees. We learned about them a few weeks ago. These are those who resented the oppression of their civil governments. And they dealt with that by emphasizing militaristic or nationalistic aspects of their religion. These were those who were antagonistic to their government, to the Romans. They tried to fuel revolt wherever they could. Mentioned earlier, they actually tried to make Jesus king by force at one point, because they so wanted an earthly kingdom established. These people felt that they could force a theocracy through their human scheming. And again, in their minds, they think they're accomplishing the will of God through their schemes. The other potential imbalance is seen with Caiaphas here. He's not leading revolt. In fact, he's trying to quell any thoughts or ideas of revolt. Caiaphas was an appeaser. He's a collaborator with Rome. He's willing to compromise his faith and to distort his religion in order to satisfy his oppressive civil government. He's one who's determined to see Judaism continue under Rome and was so convinced that he could secure his future that way that he gets busy scheming. But both of those approaches are wrong. Both the protester and both the appeasers, these are groups trying to accomplish God's will through human means, through human schemes. They both start with a faulty vision of God's will on earth. And then they work to accomplish that will. And they don't do it using God's means, but their own means. Do we see those imbalances in our day? I think we do. They've been present in every age. We have those who have nationalistic tendency. seeking to seize political power in order to usher in a Christian kingdom. They use protest, lobbying, political maneuvering as human means to accomplish their vision for God's kingdom, instead of using God's means to bring about His design for His kingdom. And sadly, many of those who are guilty of that imbalance further distort the faith by coupling their desire for revolution with quarrelsome, pugnacious, or confrontational attitudes. So in seeking to bring about the kingdom of Christ, they sacrifice the character of Christ. Well, that's an imbalance. Those individuals have something in common with Caiaphas. We're going to say a little bit more about this later, but Caiaphas was a Sadducee. As a Sadducee, he didn't believe in resurrection. He didn't believe in the spiritual realm. He didn't believe in the afterlife. He didn't believe that there was an eternal kingdom that was coming. And so Caiaphas, you can almost excuse, not really, we're not going to excuse him, but you can almost excuse him for being so earth-centric, so caught up in the present. It was all about the material, it was all about the here and now. You can kind of understand because that's the natural application of his theology. But what do you say about the nationalists today. How do they justify being so earth-centric and present-minded and materialistic when in reality they would claim they believe in an afterlife in the spiritual realm and so on, yet they're living functionally as individuals who have no such hopes. Well, do we see the opposite imbalance in our day as well? I think we do. We see compromisers. We see those You put it this way, there are those, especially in the West, where there's not a ton of oppression from the government, but we still see churches compromising, like Caiaphas, not so much to get along with the government, but to get along with the culture. Seeking to preserve popularity and influence, and so they distort biblical teaching. Downplay the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. They fear the loss of societal relevance, and so they relinquish scriptural integrity on the altar of acceptance. So that happens here, compromise. But even present day in other nations, we have even a closer parallel to what Caiaphas was doing in compromising his faith under Roman rule. We find churches who are faced with very similar choices. In some nations today, churches have to decide whether they're going to register with the government and to be an official church or perhaps go underground In order to register with the government, they have to agree only to teach what the government approves of. To go underground, to not register with the government, may invite persecution. And so those are very difficult questions, very difficult decisions. Some pastors in nations like this may begin with noble intentions. We're just going to, we have to respect our governing authorities, so we're going to be on the up and up, we're going to register with the government. Okay. Maybe start out nobly, but over time, those accommodations morph into compromises. Before long, they cross over that line in the sand where they should have taken a stand. They end up compromising the faith to a degree that what they were once trying to protect through appeasement is no longer worth protecting. You see this in nations like China, for instance, where the government has come in and said, you're not allowed to teach about the second coming of Jesus. You're not to speak of any passages which put earthly leaders in a negative light, for instance. And so now all of a sudden, doctrine and fundamental doctrine is being compromised as a matter of appeasement to the unbelieving governmental authorities. Compromise. Well, with both of those groups, both of those imbalances, what they both need is to understand that God's will is only ever accomplished using God's means. We're never going to accomplish God's purposes via ungodly means. The faithful preaching of the gospel, living with Christ-like character, being the church as Christ designed it, these ought to be the priority. Our responsibility is to focus on the means as God has designed them and leave the rest up to God. He will bring about His kingdom in His way when we live in obedience to Him. It's not our place to take out of the realm of His sovereignty the execution of His will and then think by our human scheming or by our ungodly means we can make it happen. That type of mentality fixes both of those imbalances. Well, let's get back to Caiaphas. In which of those categories did he fall? Was he the nationalist, we're gonna bring about a kingdom by force, or was he a compromiser? Well, he was a little bit of both, actually. As high priest, as a Sadducee, again, with those theological differences from the Pharisees, not believing in resurrection, not believing in the spiritual realm, and so on, not believing in a Messiah, being of that priestly upper class, focused on power, prestige, and wealth, That made him a prime pick, frankly, as a high priest. But with those priorities, that kind of made him focused on the earthly. Kind of like the nationalist who wants to just focus on the here and now and bring about a kingdom. Well, he had those tendencies as well because he's only focused on the present. But he's also a compromiser. He's going to compromise the faith in order to maintain his earthly kingdom. Caiaphas was willing to see Judaism hollowed out from the inside just so that he can maintain the temple operations and his influence. And he was willing to do that to the point where Judaism, under his leadership, became simply an empty shell not worthy of protecting at all. And that wasn't just Caiaphas, that was the system at the time. But now I want to show you something very interesting in our passage. Look at verse 49. Because we're going to see just as imbalanced and as, I'm going to say, evil as Caiaphas was. I mean, he was not just willing to personally compromise, he was willing to plot murder if it meant securing the temple. As wicked as he was, we're going to see something amazing in verse 49. He says to the council members, 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. And now, if you read that, you think, wait a second. I mean, that sounds theologically correct. That sounds like Caiaphas is talking about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. That talks like he's saying, Jesus, it's better that Jesus die in our place so that he can save the nation. Kind of what it sounds like at first blush. But that's not what's happening here. I mean, sort of what's happening here. But look in verse 51. John adds, 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 to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. And so here John indicates that Caiaphas is uttering something with meaning beyond his intention. He's saying these things, meaning as part of his scheme to kill Jesus to save his power and his influence and his money. They'll kill Jesus, therefore they'll ensure that Rome will not crack down on them, and the temple operations will continue. That's his idea. However, the words themselves carry significance far beyond that. They had a double meaning, actually pointing toward the substitutionary death of Jesus, whereby Jesus would save the people from their own sin. Well, how does this happen? Again, John's explanation of verse 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied. This is interesting. Very instructive, I think, here. What we learn is that although the office of high priest had been corrupted, although it was being held by a man who had no business being in that position, an unworthy man holding an office designed by God, even though that was the case, God still chose to use the office to communicate His truth. So we learn something about how God operates through the offices that He has instituted. Even when held by wicked men, the office of high priest was God's office, so that He chose to speak through it. Because Caiaphas was a wicked man, God could not speak through Caiaphas as if Caiaphas was obediently speaking the words of God. But ironically, God used the words of Caiaphas to indicate or to signal what he was about to do. So God was willing to use the words of a man who was so spiritually blind that he didn't even realize the meaning of the words that he spoke. I say this is instructive because we often lose sight of the fact that even when evil men or women hold offices that God has instituted, the office itself should still be respected. In respecting the office, we respect the God who instituted the office, even though the person holding the office doesn't deserve that respect. We see this in Acts 23. Paul is hauled before the Sanhedrin. Again, the council, different high priest at this point. Acts 23, the high priest here is Ananias. Ananias, similar to Caiaphas, rich, greedy, cruel. It says in Acts 23, and looking intently at the council, that's a Sanhedrin, Paul said, brothers, I've lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. Don't you love Paul? Are you sitting to judge me according to the law and yet contrary to the law, you order me to be struck? Those who stood by said, would you revile God's high priest? I mean, just in that moment, you're thinking, you're going to call Paul out for reviling this man who's acting so unjustly? I mean, this guy's despicable. He's not worthy of respect. Just orders him to be punched in the face for illegitimate reasons, and they're going to call Paul out for hurling insults at him? But then look what Paul says, Acts 23, 5. I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest. For some reason, Paul, maybe Ananias hasn't been high priest very long, Paul didn't know he's the high priest. For it's written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. So Paul kind of does a little mea culpa there, and he says, I didn't know. Had I known. And he quotes Exodus 22, 28, which says you should not revile a ruler of your people. So Paul recognizes his error. Now, was Ananias worthy of respect? Absolutely not. Did he deserve the words that Paul gave him? That and more. What Paul is saying here is, nevertheless, he holds the office of high priest and the office of high priest deserves respect. In fact, God says you should not revile a ruler of your people. And God did not say you should not revile a ruler of your people because his assumption was every ruler of the people was going to be worthy of respect. Paul knows this well. He wrote to the Romans in Romans 13, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there's no authority except from God and those who exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. The point is God makes the appointments. God institutes the office. And so God deserves the respect of the office that he's instituted, even when held by ungodly men, frankly. Why would God require this? This is a tough one. We have a hard time with this. When we respect the office of earthly authorities, even when held by ungodly men, we are acknowledging that God is ultimately sovereign and He's still in control. We're confessing with Daniel in Daniel 2, He changes times and seasons, He removes kings and sets up kings. The point is this, there is no earthly authority above God. whoever's in office and no matter how they're behaving, we're not to assume that they've usurped or somehow reigning outside of God's control. And so we recognize God is ultimately in control. And so I'm going to respect the office that he has instituted. Now, further, we respect the offices of authority because God has instituted them to protect against societal instability and anarchy. Governments, parents, even spiritual leaders, are given by God to uphold God's design. And it's true that these offices, all of these offices, will sometimes be held by unworthy people. But our response to their unworthiness should not be to dismantle those societal structures. We don't reject the nuclear family because they are abusive parents. We don't reject the whole concept or the whole design of God because sometimes nuclear family is dysfunctional. We don't redesign church because some pastors are apostates. And we don't become anarchists because our president or prime minister is evil. Instead, we find ways to show respect for the office while never validating the sin of those who hold the office, nor compromising our faith at the behest of those individuals. So God in our passage is using the office of high priest to signal that he is working his sovereign plan, even when the man holding the office is wicked. Here we learn that man's scheming can never thwart God's sovereignty. His will will be done. He may even use the scheming of men or scheming men as his unwitting tools, not because he needs them, but in order to illustrate that he's the ultimate authority and he's in control. Peter reveals this in Acts 2.22. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus, listen, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. So who's in charge here? Who sent Jesus to the cross? God did. It's all according to his definite plan and his foreknowledge. But then he says, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. So who sent Jesus to the cross? Who's responsible for the crucifixion? Is it man and his lawlessness, or is it God's definite plan? The answer is yes. This is according to God's definite plan. But mankind, the wicked Jewish leadership, thought that they were carrying out their scheme. But in reality, God was in control of everything. Peter continues, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it's not possible for him to be held by it. So, they saw Christ's crucifixion as a climax of their scheme to secure their temple and to secure their influence. In reality, God was working a sovereign plan, which results in the ultimate destruction of the temple and any influence they had associated with it. In trying to secure their fate, they actually sealed it. So the point's this. No human scheme, will thwart God's plan, and no human scheme will accomplish God's plan. God is enthroned as sovereign king and works all things to accomplish His purposes. And further, and this is important, He always accomplishes His purposes according to His means. Psalm 2, why do the nations rage in the people's plot in vain? Why are they scheming? It's in vain. This is pointless. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against Yahweh and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their courts from us." We don't want to be controlled by God, right? He's not an authority. He should have no say in our lives, so let's just break free of any constraints. He who sits in the heavens, what does he do in response to man's rebellion? Well, he says he laughs. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, you're scheming, you're trying to throw off constraints, but as for me, I've set my king in Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, You are my sons, that I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. While the men of this world and the rulers of the nations are scheming, God is saying, My Son is on the throne, and He is King. He will inherit the nations. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned. O rulers of the earth, serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him." God laughs at human scheming. Plotting against God? All such plotting is vain. Do you know what all mankind's efforts to overthrow God's sovereignty will result in? Absolutely nothing. All of human history is moving according to God's sovereign plan. It's all moving to Christ. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. The thought that any person, any king, any council, any earthly ruler, or even any high priest can do anything to thwart God's plan, according to Psalm 2, is just laughable. Equally laughable is the idea that God needs our scheming to bring about His sovereign plan. It's when we lose sight of this that we begin to panic under the authority of wicked rulers. We know that they think they're in control, but far be it from us to forget that God is in control. When we forget that God is sovereign and that he sets up authorities, we're tempted to panic in the sight of ungodly rulers. We begin to feel panic, thinking that earthly leaders can somehow overthrow God's sovereign authority. Like a man thrashing in the water, certain that he's drowning. Picture that. Someone thinking he's drowning and he's just thrashing all over the place trying to find something to hold on to, some security. We sometimes flail wildly, desperate to clutch to anything for some stability as we see society kind of spiraling out of control. And so we scheme or we fight, or again, we just grasp for something. And this panic flailing, unfortunately, many Christians are willing to abandon Christ-like humility. They're willing to risk forgetting His command to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Many are tempted to trade prayer for protest, to trade a peacemaking attitude with pugnacity. Worse, many may become willing to employ ungodly means, manipulating, coercing, rebelling, compromising to rescue God's kingdom from the ungodly leaders. We can respect the offices that God has instituted, even when held by evil men, because we're confident that God is ultimately in control. His sovereign will will be accomplished because no scheme of man will succeed. In fact, God laughs at any such idea. Now, back to our text. We see God speaking through the office of high priest. He's signaling his sovereign plan. even while evil Caiaphas felt that he was in control. He uses Caiaphas' words ironically, turning them from words of evil into words of prophecy. So, what's driving Caiaphas' scheme here? What's driving him to scheme? He's fearful, yeah. He's panicking, yeah. He's prideful, yes. But there's something else. Caiaphas is so deluded that in his own perverted way, I think he thinks he's doing God a favor. As I already mentioned, sometimes we scheme against God, but sometimes we can be guilty of scheming for God. In Caiaphas' mind, there's no conceivable way that it could be God's will that the Romans come in and take away the temple. I mean, that's completely out of the question. Banish the thought. So he's convinced that the temple must stand. Well, I mean, obviously that's God's will. The temple's got to keep going. The temple operations have to keep going. I mean, that's his conviction. And so based upon that determination, he can justify all sorts of actions. That must be God's will to protect the temple, and so I'm going to have to go to whatever lengths to make sure that the temple does not come into danger. He's really seeing himself as God's agent, carrying out God's will. But this is what Caiaphas missed. Again, God never accomplishes His purposes or His will via ungodly means. In fact, if ungodly character or actions are required to accomplish something, that's the telltale sign that this is not God's will. Caiaphas would later oversee the trial of Jesus, which was a sham. How does a man who here makes it clear and signals We're going to kill Jesus. That's the scheme. And then later on, he's going to orchestrate the trial as if he's some objective judge, when in reality, the execution of Jesus is some foregone conclusion. Well, how can a high priest justify such injustice and such duplicity? He can justify it because in his mind, God's will is that the temple must stand and that justifies any action in order to secure God's will. Can we be guilty of something similar? Yeah. There's times when our circumstances bring about fear and panic and pride. Fear and panic and pride. There's times when we feel that we're losing control. There's times when we're seeing things happening in our lives and we're absolutely convinced that this must not be God's will, whether in the realm of our jobs, our relationships, our homes, or even our church or our culture. It's during those times that we can justify ungodly attitudes. We can justify ungodly actions. Our determination that God couldn't possibly be behind what's happening in my life is what justifies us to concoct our own schemes to fix the situation. Like Caiaphas, we risk trading Christ-like humility with some twisted zeal, using ungodly means to force what we think God wants. And so it's at times like that that we have to be reminded. Human schemes against God will never stand, nor will human schemes purportedly for God ever stand. He will accomplish His sovereign purposes only by His chosen means. If getting what we want requires compromising our faith or compromising Christian character or spiritual priorities, then that is the signal that what we're trying to do is not God's will, or perhaps just not God's timing. So we could ask a question of Caiaphas. What if God wants the temple destroyed? Caiaphas would scoff at that. He couldn't conceive of such a thing. Ask Caiaphas, what if, in God's sovereign plan, the temple has no future? Caiaphas, again, would scoff at such a suggestion. You could say, what if, according to God's perfect purposes, the office of earthly high priest will be done away with? What if God would use the Romans to accomplish His will? What if God can carry out His purposes without your human scheming, Caiaphas? What if you focused on spiritual priorities? What if you focused on godly character? What if you focused on obedience? What if you used God's means and then just saw what God might do? There are some questions for Caiaphas. Do you know what would ultimately happen? Caiaphas puts a scheme in place, thinks he's going to execute Jesus. Of course, Christ dies on the cross, and Matthew records this. Matthew 27, Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus gives up his spirit, he dies, and it says at that moment, the curtain in the temple was torn in two. I mean, that was everything to the temple. The splitting of the curtain in the temple was to say the way access to God has been made for everyone. The whole purpose of the temple at that point was done away with. The curtain is... torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, Truly, this was the Son of God." There's no containing this anymore. So what happened? The temple and its operations, which Caiaphas was willing to compromise the faith for, and ultimately sacrifice his eternal soul for, were rendered obsolete. They were rendered obsolete by the very scheme that Caiaphas cooked up to protect them. Jesus was killed, but in his death he atoned for the sins of mankind. He fulfilled the purpose of the temple. He rendered it and all its operations obsolete. Further, if Caiaphas thought that killing Jesus would kill off the messianic movement, he was sorely mistaken. I mean, he's thinking they can't even withstand the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And now Jesus rises from the dead. And with that comes the birth of the church. There's no stopping God's sovereign plan to bring about His kingdom. And what happens 40 years later? The Romans march into Jerusalem, they besiege the city, and they raise the temple to the ground. never to be rebuilt again. Psalm 9 verse 15 says, The nations have sunk in the pit that they made, in the net that they hid. Their own foot has been caught. Yahweh has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Scheming against God will never succeed. Further, scheming for God will never succeed. Only faithfully trusting His sovereign will, obediently using His means to bring about His kingdom, will stand. So in conclusion, the Jewish leaders, particularly Caiaphas, sought to protect their position and their power by conspiring to kill Jesus. Yet in their attempt to secure their own future, they unknowingly fulfilled God's predetermined plan. the sacrificial death of Christ for the salvation of his people. And so their schemes could neither advance nor hinder God's plan. Instead, they just became unwitting instruments in His fulfillment. And really, they sealed their fate as rebels against God. And so we too often find ourselves grasping for control when life doesn't unfold the way that we expect it to. Fear, panic, pride can lead us to scheme our own way forward rather than trusting God's sovereignty. And so like those Jewish leaders, we can be tempted to manipulate circumstances. to preserve our sense of security, whether in our personal lives, our workplaces, even in the church or in the culture. But just as their efforts were ultimately futile, all these efforts are ultimately futile. God will accomplish His purposes, and He will only accomplish His purposes through His means. So instead of grasping for control, we rest in the assurance that God's will is unshakable. Psalm 3310 says, Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people. The counsel of Yahweh stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. And so, ultimately, the greatest comfort for the believer is that no human plan can thwart God's will. The rulers of Jesus' day acted in rebellion to God, but God, fully in control, used even their ill intentions to bring about His sovereign plan, not because He needed them, but to illustrate that he is the ultimate authority, even over those wicked men who find themselves in his divinely instituted offices. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray you'd help us to trust you in the midst of a culture that is governed by godless individuals. So as the church, as we sometimes feel as if things are spiraling out of control, as we feel the rise of oppression and anticipate eventual persecution, help us to maintain an attitude that sees you as the ultimate sovereign, sees Christ as seated upon the throne with all things being firmly within your control, and help us to focus upon using your means to bring about your kingdom So help us not to succumb to fear or panic or pride when we're faced with difficult circumstances. When it comes to our personal lives, help us to see areas in which we're not trusting you, but instead trying to concoct or implement our own scheming in order to bring about what we think is your will. Instead, help us to focus upon obedience, help us to focus on your means, help us to focus on maintaining Christ-like character, and then trusting you to bring about your will. And then lastly, we just pray this morning for those who are with us who have not yet received Christ as their Savior and Lord, we pray that they would recognize that all human history is moving towards Jesus, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, some now out of love for Christ, out of love for what He has done for them on the cross, and others later as they submit to Him under compulsion. after having lived a life of rebellion and separation from you. So we pray that some would receive Christ as Savior and Lord, trusting Him as the only means of salvation and submitting to Him as the only rightful authority. And then help us as a church to take these things to heart and to only implement your means to accomplish your purposes. I pray that this would provide a mandate for us as we do ministry to make sure that we're not using our own ingenuity, our own scheming, thinking that's gonna accomplish your will. So Lord, we thank you for all of this, and we thank you for your word. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.