Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                               Verses 45-53

All humans possess an eternal, living nature given to them by God, but all humans also possess an eternal, spiritual death that the Devil injects into them because of their weakness for sin that they inherited from Adam. Romans 5:12. Some people become saved by grace because they hear or read the gospel, become convinced by the Holy Spirit  that they are lost sinners in need of Jesus their Savior, and they listen to the Holy Spirit who awakens their latent faith that Christ has already saved them from sin, evil, and spiritual death because he took it all away with His shed blood and death on the cross. Romans 10:17; Romans 10:8-13. But most people, even if they hear the gospel and even if they see God do miracles, reject the call of the Holy Spirit to come to faith in Christ because they adhere to the influence of their evil natures. Some of Martha and Mary's friends believed in Jesus because they saw His miracle, and they became saved by His grace. But others of their friends went to inform the Pharisees about what Jesus had done because of the influence of their evil natures.

The chief priests and Pharisees gathered together into a counsel to plot how they would put Jesus to death. They admitted that Jesus had done many miracles, but their prideful, sinful natures caused them to ignore the fact that their own religion taught them that only God can perform miracles. John 9:33. They knew that the Romans had heard about Jesus and His miracles. They were afraid that the Romans would destroy their nation to keep Jesus from using His power against them. They did not know that the Romans had not thought of that.

But even in their evil counsel, a strange miracle occurred. They consulted about all of the practical reasons why they thought they had to put Jesus to death, but they did not realize that as they gave those reasons the Holy Spirit caused their good natures to make prophecies about the successful mission of Jesus and its effects on their nation and the whole world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. They said that if they did not murder Jesus, then their whole nation would believe in Him which would cause the Romans to destroy their nation, which was a prophecy fulfilled in 70 A.D. The high priest, Caiaphas, reminded them that Jesus had to die for that nation to keep the Romans from destroying it. Jesus did die for that nation to keep the Devil from destroying it. But the high priest went further in His prophecy that Jesus would gather into one people all in the world who would believe in Him. That prophecy certainly has and will come true. Christ will save the entire human race. John 12:46-47; I Corinthians 15:22; I Timothy 4:10. The counsel adduced certain reasons why they thought they had to kill Jesus, but unbeknownst to them, the Holy Spirit infused true prophecies into those reasons.

                                                                                                                                               Verses 54-57

Jesus left Judea and went to the city of Ephraim with His disciples. Jesus had to wait for His Father to tell Him that the time had come for Him to go to Jerusalem to be crucified.

While He was there, the time of the Passover drew near. Many Jews went to Jerusalem before the Passover to engage in some kind of purification ceremony. They speculated about whether or not Jesus would come to the feast. The chief priests and Pharisees also waited for Jesus, and they put out a command that any person there should inform them if they knew where Jesus was.