Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20060129.htm
JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD Part XXXI: Handling Apostasy By Staying With God's Assignments (John 11:1-16)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

As we have often noted, the drift from God's truth is certainly now occurring in open and even powerful ways as we can illustrate:

(1) In his January 2006 issue of The Berean Call newsletter, Dave Hunt noted on page 1 that "A recent Barna poll revealed that 71 percent of Americans, 64 percent of born-agains,' and 40 percent of evangelicals' reject absolute truth." Thus, most Americans and around half of those in our country who profess to believe in Christ as Savior reject the idea that Scripture teaches absolute facts that we can hold as being surely believable!

(2) One key evangelical institution even openly misrepresents the truth at a point in particular: Zondervan Publishing House, a long-time, key evangelical producer of books and Bibles, revised its Halley's Bible Handbook in 2000 to remove all of its previous claims that the Roman Catholic Church has held to doctrinal errors and has persecuted godly promoters of the faith! In place of these views, that revision asserts: "The Roman Catholic Church responded to the Protestant Reformation by reforming and renewing itself.'" (Ibid.)

In reality, the truth is quite different from this revised slant! Dave Hunt noted that "The Council of Trent (1545-1563) was the response of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) to the Reformation. It pronounced more than 100 anathemas against the true gospel, damning to hell all who believe it. For example, If anyone says that the sacraments of the New Law [Catholic rituals] are not necessary for salvation but . . . men obtain from God through faith alone the grace of justification . . . let him be anathema.'" (Ibid.)

Lest we might think that the stands of the Council of Trent were later changed or reformed in some way, Hunt reports that "On December 31, 1995, honoring Trent's 450th anniversary, Pope John Paul II declared: Its conclusions maintain all their value.'" (Ibid.)



So, in view of such CLEAR, STRONG departures from the truth by KEY groups of Christians or Christian institutions, WHAT are we to DO about it?! Are we to focus on trying to stop this drift from the Bible's truth in some unique way, or are we to try to hide from it? WHAT does GOD expect us to DO to RESPOND well to such OPEN and STRONG apostasy?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "In contemplating the great and strong growth of error in even Christian circles, what is the best WAY to RESPOND to it all?"

1. Having followed Jesus across the Jordan to leave their nation's apostate religious leaders who had often tried to kill Him, the disciples were AFRAID to heed His call to RETURN , Jn. 11:1-8, 16:
1. Jesus crossed the Jordan River in John 10:40 in response to repeated efforts by Israel's national apostate religious leaders to kill Him:
1. In John 10:38-39, Jesus had spoken with Judaea's religious leaders who had not only rejected His words, but had also tried to kill Him.
2. These leaders represented Israel's national religious elite who were at the temple, John 10:23-24 with 7:45.
3. The use of the word, "again" in John 10:39 reveals these apostate national religious leaders had repeatedly tried to kill Jesus:
1. Earlier in the same setting at John 10:31-33, these leaders at the temple had tried to stone Jesus for the alleged sin of blasphemy.
2. The word "again" describes that attempt in John 10:31, recalling that, at the temple during Feast of Tabernacles months before, these national religious leaders had then tried to kill Him, 8:59!
3. Their animosity burned even before then: Jesus had delayed attending that Feast to deter conflict with these leaders, and the crowds claimed the leaders wanted to kill Him, Jn. 7:1, 6-8, 25!
2. Thus, as Jesus had led His disciples across the Jordan to escape these national religious apostate foes, His mention of returning to their realm was met with fearful resistance by the disciples (John 11:1-8):
1. While east of the Jordan, Jesus heard about the illness of Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha who were His special friends, 11:1-5.
2. Jesus initially stayed put for two days to allow Lazarus to die so He could then raise him from death to glorify God, John 11:4, 41-44.
3. However, Christ's disciples thought He was staying out of Judaea to avoid death by their nation's apostate leaders; thus, when Jesus THEN said, "Let us go into Judaea again" (John 11:7 KJV), they responded with great reluctance out of fear for those leaders:
1. The disciples responded to Jesus' directive to return to Judaea by reminding the Lord that its national religious apostate leaders had recently tried to execute Him by stoning, John 10:8a!
2. Having stated this fact, they asked Jesus why He intended to leave their present location across the Jordan where they were safe only to return (hupago) to that area of ALL places, John 11:8! (In this Gospel, hupago means "go away" or "go back" versus "go on a journey" in general, Moult. & Mill., The Voc. of the Greek N. T., p. 649; U. B. S. Greek N. T. (1966), p. 371)
3. So convinced was Jesus' disciple, Thomas that returning to Judaea meant certain death at the hands of its national religious apostate leaders that he stated this conviction in John 11:15-16!
2. However, Jesus claimed the Father wanted Him to KEEP discipling people back in JUDAEA, meaning GOD would PRESERVE them WHEN they RETURNED there to FULFILL that divine WILL:
1. Jesus responded to His disciples by contrasting the "light" of His Father's "will" to return to Judaea versus the " night" of the disciples' desire to stay, Ryr. St. Bib., KJV, 1978, ftn. to Jn. 11:8-10.
2. So, Jesus explained that, (1) as the Father still wanted Him to disciple men back in Judaea, His return there would not lead to their harm, for the Father would protect them so Jesus could do His will. (2) Yet, to stay put where they currently abode was to function outside of the Father's will, and would lead them to stumble to their harm, 11:9-10!
3. Also, the author of John's Gospel noted in 1 John 2:10 that when a believer lives in accord with God's "light", he does not cause others to stumble, so he best advances God's cause by heeding God's will!
4. These facts are illustrated by the result of Christ's return to Judaea in John 11:45-53: (A) His return to raise Lazarus did not initially lead to any harm for Him or His disciples; (B) yet, it DID lead Judaea's rulers to firm up plans to kill Him, and once those plans were implemented, they led to the global salvation of God's people!

Application: In RESPONSE to great and strong apostasy, may we (1) TRUST in Christ as Savior from sin to be saved, John 3:16. (2) Then, may we (a) "walk in God's Biblical will (b) VERSUS just REACTING in HUMAN insight and power to acts by apostates! We will thus avoid stumbling to our harm in the "darkness" of our own futile human wisdom, and God can protect and make us the MOST EFFECTIVE we CAN be in VIEW of the apostasy!

Lesson: (1) Jesus REFUSED to be SIDETRACKED from His Father's ASSIGNMENT due to a HUMAN tendency to REACT to APOSTATES! (2) Rather, He KEPT at God's WILL, (a) trusting the Father's agenda made provision for Him to FULFILL that WILL (b) and make Him MOST EFFECTIVE toward OVERCOMING APOSTASY in the END!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

(1) Tilly Smith, age 10 years, a British school girl, was taken by her parents last December from her home in Oxshott, England to a beach in Thailand just before the tsunami hit the shore by the Marriott Hotel where the family stayed! As so many of that waves victims were children, Tilly's relocation to that beach might seem to us to be tragic!

However, it was the BEST move for her to make, one that made her most effective in countering the effects of that disaster! You see, Tilly had learned in her geography class back in England that if the sea bubbled and its foam "sizzled" as "in a frying pan," a tsunami was about to hit the shore! That's why on December 26, 2005, when that young girl who was thousands of miles away from her safe English home was on that beach "in harm's way", and she saw its bubbling and sizzling water, she could quickly tell her parents so they in turn could alert the Marriott Hotel staff who could then evacuate the beach just minutes before the tsunami hit! Because ten-year-old Tilly Smith from Oxshott, England was "on the beach" in Thailand near that hotel at that instant, she and nearly 100 other people avoided bad injury or death! (AP story from Paris titled, "French [sic] girl named child of the year')

(2) Similarly, last Sunday after our morning worship service, one of our Church members told me how glad he was that we had held our regular worship service last Christmas Sunday, December 25th! Though some churches had closed their doors for fear that few if any parishioners might come, we thought it best to keep ministering God's Word that Sunday just as God has led us to do, for even unbelievers expect us to have a service on Christmas Day if it lands on a Sunday!

Only a few people came out to the service that day, but the fact we were open and ministered God's Word has had a very positive effect on one party in particular! Had we been closed, as this Church member told me, we would have done great discipling harm! In God's grace, we were "on the beach" that Sunday, so He richly blessed us!



In view of the foreboding "tsunami" wave of apostasy we see before us, God needs us ALL to STAY "on the beach," to KEEP at the ASSIGNMENT He has for EACH of us!



May we overcome apostasy by KEEPING AT God's WILL VERSUS being SIDE-TRACKED into mere futile reactionism!