Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church-Friedheim
Celebrating our 167th Year

A 21st Century Parish with a 1st Century Faith
Acts 2:42

Lent 5
March 13, 2005
John 11:47-53
The Irony of the Cross of Christ

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INTRODUCTION: Do good deeds ever backfire on you? Did you ever help someone only to be criticized for interfering? If this ever happened to you – take heart! Jesus faced similar problems. After miraculously bringing back to life His friend Lazarus, His enemies, the ruling priests and Pharisees, instead of glorifying Him, plotted to get ride of Him. But God used their evil scheme to bring about the greatest good for humankind. We see the irony of the cross of Jesus Christ.

  1. The world will often reject the good in favor of the evil.

A.    The ruling priests and Pharisees resented Jesus and the good He was doing. “The chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of th8e Sanhedrin. What are we accomplishing? They asked. Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let Him go on like this everyone will believe in him and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (Vv. 47-48)

1.       They resented His popularity and the influence He was having on the people.

a.       They regarded Him as a threat to their position of power.

b.      The feared the destruction of their nation.

2.       The enemies of the Messiah sought to do evil to Him.

a.       They took counsel against Him.

b.      The proposed to kill Him. “So from that day on they plotted to take His life.” (V.53)

B.        People today also reject Jesus despite the good He can bring to their lives.

1.      They do so when they live in the false hope that their own goodness is sufficient for salvation.

a.       They refuse to recognize and acknowledge their depravity.

b.      They are blind to the fact that their own works do not merit God’s favor.

c.       They do not look to Christ and the only hope for eternal life.

2.      Thy do so when they live with the mistaken fear that by following Christ their life will be stifled.

a.       They are afraid that He will take all the “fun” out of life.

b.      They are afraid of being rejected by friends and associates.

c.       They are afraid they cannot survive in business, which too often operates by unchristian principles.

Transition: This world will often reject Christ’s good in favor of evil. Yet Jesus Christ can turn that which is evil into an eternal good.

II.      In the hands of God evil can be transformed into good.

A. The evil action of the ruling priests and the Pharisees was used by God to accomplish His good purpose.

1.      It was God’s eternal plan that “one man should die for the people” namely, His only-begotten Son.

2.      Through Christ’s death, plotted and carried out by His enemies for an evil purpose, the world was reconciled to the Father.

B. Throughout history God has turned evil into good.

CONCLUSION: As people of God we can live in the confidence that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” As the hymn puts it, “Beloved, it is well!”

 + Soli Deo Gloria +