So Lord, may graciously help
me. I turn your prayerful attention to the gospel of John chapter
11 and reading verses 49 and 50
as a text. John's gospel chapter 11, verses 49 and 50. That's
page... 995 on the Ruby Bible. And one of them, named Caiaphas,
being the high priest that same year, saith unto them, Ye know
nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that
one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish
not. John's Gospel, chapter 11, verses
49 and 50. This morning we were looking
at the earlier part of this chapter, the way that the Lord Jesus appeared
on behalf of Mary and Martha and came and raised their dead
brother from the dead and showed the Lord Jesus to be the resurrection
and the life. And in the end of that account,
we read that a number of them You see a number of those Jews
that were there believed. In verse 45 of John 11, we read,
then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things
which Jesus did, believed on him. So these, those Jews, some
of those Jews that came to comfort Mary and Martha, came to weep
with them and be kind to them in their great loss of a brother.
they ended up seeing this miracle and believing that the Lord Jesus
was the resurrection and the life. But solemnly, you see,
we have the two sides. This great miracle of raising
one from the dead did cause some to believe But others, in verse
46, you see, we read, but some of them went their ways to the
Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. And clearly their reason for
telling the Pharisees what things Jesus had done was not to try
and be a blessing to those Pharisees so that they may also come to
worship the Lord Jesus. The sense here, I believe, is
They wanted to tell them so that they could make trouble and try
and undo what Jesus had done with Lazarus. So we have the
two sides. And we think of that, the sun
that shines brightly with its warmth. It has opposite effects,
does it not, on clay and on wax. Clay, as it is in the effect by the sun,
it gets harder and harder as the sun shines brighter and brighter
upon it. But of course, wax is melted
by the heat of the sun. And so the sun of righteousness
has that two effects, the savour of life unto life, unto them
that believe, but solemnly the savour of death unto death, to
those that do not believe. It's interesting we think of
that parable of the rich man and Lazarus, a different Lazarus
than this one, of course, but we read then that the brothers
or the Lazarus that was in hell, as it were, he said, if one rose
from the dead, then they would believe. It's interesting here
that we have one raising from the dead, even Lazarus himself,
a different Lazarus. but not all believed. It did not universally cause
those that saw it firsthand for themselves to believe. Well, Then we come on to what
we read tonight, what the chief priests and the Pharisees hold
this council and said, what do we? For this man doth many miracles. They acknowledge it. They can't
deny it. Jesus had raised Lazarus from
the dead. He'd been dead four days. This
was a clear miracle. They couldn't dispute it. but
you see here then they give a scenario and this becomes very significant
in the things that lead up to the well-known events that we
think of at Easter time with the Lord Jesus being taken by
wicked hands and crucified and then rising again. This is an
important a chain in those events. Then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees, a council saying, what do we? For this
man doth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him. And the Romans shall take, come
and take away both our place and nation. So this is the scenario
they paint. Clearly there's The Lord Jesus
has done nothing evil at all. He has raised one of their people,
one of the Jews, has raised him from the dead. This is a wonderful
thing that he has done. If we had doctors today that
could have this effect on people, they'd be very popular. But here
you see Jesus had done what was good. How are they going to put
to death or how are they going to counteract what Jesus has
done? So they give a scenario, and
this is very important. You see, how can you have a real
reason, an honest reason, for putting to death a man that goes
about doing good? How can you, with a clear conscience,
really put such a man to death? And this is what they struggled
with. What he'd done was they tried many times to catch him,
that he'd done things on the Sabbath day and he'd done other
things that they tried to criticize. But the problem was he was doing
good things. How do you put somebody to death
who's doing good things and try and do it with a clear conscience
or try to pretend that you have a clear conscience? But you see,
in verse 48, there's a reasoning here. If we let him thus alone,
all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and
take away both our place Think of the Sanhedrin is talking here,
the chief priests, the ruling councils of the Jews. They have
that power and they have that authority. And what they're saying
is if you let this Jesus keep doing these miracles, we are
going to lose this. And there's going to be perhaps
an uprising with Jesus being made a king as that was tried
to be done at some times. And the Romans are then going
to come and crush us. and we're going to lose everything.
So this is the scenario they paint, that this is what's going
to happen, and therefore we need to do something radical to stop
something happening that is going to be very terrible in the future,
in their estimation. Well, and the Romans shall come
and take away our place and nation. So that's what the scenario is,
that if they don't do something to the Lord Jesus, the Jews are
going to lose their nation and the Sanhedrin are going to lose
their place of authority. They need to act quickly to stop
this happening. And it's interesting, Proverbs
chapter 10 and verse 24, we have these words. Proverbs 10 verse
24, the fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him, but the
desire of the righteous shall be granted. The fear of the wicked,
it shall come upon him. So their fear was that the Romans
would take away their place and their nation. It's interesting,
of course, if we look to something like 40 years or so after the
death of the Lord Jesus, this is exactly what happened. The Romans did do this to the
Jews. There was a great cleansing, ethnic cleansing,
as it were, at that time, and the thing that they feared came
upon them. But they paint this scenario,
and therefore, as a result of this, they come to this conclusion
that it is acceptable to sacrifice, as it were, one person, the death
of one person, in other words, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we
get rid of him, this will save the whole nation from getting
in this trouble with the Romans. It will save an uprising. And
therefore, even though in one sense they could see that it
was a wrong thing to do, yet it had a good end to it. It had
a good end in the sense that it would save both the land of
Israel and their place as the Sanhedrin and the ruling authorities,
religious authorities. Well, that was the scenario that
we have in verse 48. And in verse 49, then we have
these words spoken by Caiaphas. And one of them named Caiaphas,
being the high priest the same year, said unto them, Ye know
nothing at all. It seems he was a very proud
man. And yet you see, he made this
prophecy. We read in verse 51, I think
verses 51 and 52 are words added by the Apostle John writing this
gospel to give clarification to this verse 50 that Caiaphas
spoke. Nor consider that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole
nation perish not. This is the prophecy that Caiaphas
made. He was saying to the Sanhedrin,
we've got this problem, And if this problem goes on and Jesus
gains popularity, the Romans are going to crush us and we're
going to lose our place of authority and power. And therefore it is
expedient, it is right, it is sensible, it is practical to
put to death this Lord Jesus so that the whole nation can
be freed of this threat. that is now upon them, that they
would be overtaken by the Romans. Nor consider that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole
nation perish not. This is his, this was what he
was proposing. And we see later on that this
was very important in the chain of events, what led to Jesus
being taken. by wicked hands. And John gives
us in this, in verse 51, and this spake he not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation. So the death of Jesus and taking
away this one who went about doing miracles, this would save
the nation from the Romans crushing them and save the nation from
their position being challenged. And then John says in verse 52,
and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather
together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
And then if you look in verse 53, you see, you have this as
the effect of what Caiaphas has said. Then from that day forth,
They took counsel together for, to put him to death. There's a shift, you see. Before,
there were certain things that he was doing that they tried
to catch him in, but now they had a reason to put Jesus to
death. The reason was, it was for the
common good. Yes, they realised that he went
about raising people from the dead and doing miracles and doing
things that they really couldn't say were bad, But for the common
good of the whole nation, to get this one removed would be
good for all, as they proposed. And therefore, from that day
forth, they took counsel together to put him to death. So this was, if you like, a reasoned
argument as to why they should put an innocent man to death.
They knew him to be innocent in a sense, but there was a good
reason to do this. It was for the good of the nation,
and it was for the good of them in general. They would continue
to have their power as the ruling authorities, and they would consider
that they would continue to have that authority, and they would
not be crushed by an uprising from the Romans if somebody was
trying to be made king. as they tried to do to Jesus,
although Jesus said very clearly, my kingdom is not of this world. He did not want to be an earthly
king. And John tells us in verse 53,
51, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. Isn't
it incredible that an ungodly person, God used to give a prophecy,
which had such a double meaning. You see, the way I've explained
it so far, it was totally from Caiaphas's point of view, totally
from the Sanhedrin's point of view, totally from a selfish
point of view, totally for the good of the nation so that they
could stay in control and that they would be rid of this one
that went about doing good. But you see this prophecy, just
as we have in the Old Testament, we have that Balaam prophesying
about the blessedness of being amongst the Israelites. He says
that the people of God are blessed. I have not beheld iniquity in
Jacob. Let me die the death of the righteous
and let my last end be like his. That's what an ungodly man said.
But you see, here we have an ungodly man speaking tremendous,
precious gospel truths, being totally ignorant of what he was
saying. Totally ignorant of the wonderful
gospel message that he was giving. nor consider that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole
nation should perish not. You see, there's such a double
meaning here. He meant it to get rid of the
Lord Jesus so that they would not be in uprising, so that the
Romans would not overthrow them, so that it was expedient that
they could kill one innocent person because it would save
the greater thing to do something evil that good may come. But,
of course, in a gospel sense, nor consider that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people. Now this is the
great theme of substitution, the great theme of Isaiah 53,
that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation
should perish not, the whole church of God should not perish,
because this one man, even the Lord Jesus Christ, would die
for that people. You see, he didn't realise it,
but this was a prophecy that the Lord Jesus would die for
his people. It was something that the disciples
didn't want. It was something that Peter didn't
want. But this wicked high priest, of course, the high priest was
meant to be the most representative person in the religious authorities,
most representing the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet he was one of
the greatest enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's very solemn,
really, when you think of how twisted and completely upside
down, really, the religious authorities were at that time. Those things
that God had set up, that high priest, which was to make intercession
for the people, to offer on that great day of atonement. And of
course, these high priests had been appointed by the Romans,
I understand. And it was not really, they were
not godly people. They were more in a position
of power and and they wanted to maintain that and that's why
they described that it was expedient, it was right, it was sensible.
That one man should die, even Jesus, we get rid of him and
then we will lose our power struggle. We will lose that one who opposes
us and we will gain the victory. Nor consider that it is expedient
for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole
nation You see, the Lord is able to take his most solid enemies
and make them to be a blessing to the people of God. Ye meant
it for evil. That's what came so clearly.
Joseph was able to look back at his life with all the things
that took place that his brothers did to him. Ye meant it for evil
and absolutely you could stamp this statement of Caiaphas. Ye meant it for evil. Ye meant it against the Lord
of life and glory. Ye meant it to overthrow his
authority and to bring this man to nothing. Ye meant it for evil,
but God meant it unto good. What a blessing, what a blessing
that is when we see the powers, so many powers today and we think
of Psalm 2. At why do the heathen rage and
the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord. That's what
Caiaphas was doing. Counsel together against the
Lord and against his anointed. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. We will get rid of this man. That's what Joseph's brethren
said. We will see what will become of his dreams. Let us break their
bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. But then we have
in verse four of Psalm 2, he that sitteth in the heavens shall
laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. You see, wherein they dealt proudly,
and it was a lot of pride mixed up with this, they wanted to
have the authority, they wanted to have the power, wherein they
dealt proudly, he was above them. And so we see here, nor consider
that it is expedient for us. You see the substitution wording
here, isn't there? There's something between us
and this one in the place of us. So instead of us perishing,
this other one would perish in our place. He meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good. God meant it for the good of
the entire church, that this prophecy by a wicked man for
wicked ends against the Lord and against his anointed was
turned round and used for the good of his people, for the glorious
gospel of the grace of God. And so we see that it was not
that the things that happened around Calvary were orchestrated
by people who understood the gospel and loved the gospel and
sought to bring about the gospel. No, it was by those that hated
Christ, those that hated his people, the same with Joseph.
They didn't want to afford his dreams, did they? They didn't
want to afford the fact that he would be, that he would be
exalted and they would bow down to him. They didn't want to do
that at all. They did everything they could to undermine the authority
of Joseph, their brother. Ye meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. We read in the Acts that a great
company of the priests also believed. Was it some of these? We don't
know. Some of these, perhaps, that gathered the chief priests,
but they were to come to... We know that on the day of Pentecost,
when Peter was preaching, that they were cut to the heart. Men
and brethren, what shall we do? We've crucified the Lord of life
and glory. But you see, that's the message
of the gospel. There's a way back to God. When Joseph's brethren
came to him and they could only think, well, now he's going to
absolutely get his own back on us. Now he's going to use all
his power and all his strength and all his regal power to crush
us. Ye meant it for evil, but God
meant it unto good. Good. Nor consider that it is
expedient for us that one man should die for the people. The Lord Jesus would stand in
his people's place. This was the expedient, this
was the right thing. And that the whole nation perish
not. You see, these are very similar
words to what Jesus himself spoke after the road to Emmaus and
He spoke to them and then met them in the upper room. In Luke
24, verse 46, we read these words, and said unto them, this is Luke
24, verse 46, and said unto them, thus it is written, and thus
it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. the third
day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached
in his name among all nations, beginning where? At Jerusalem. At Jerusalem, at this place where
these high priests and these Pharisees were scheming and plotting
to bring to naught the counsels of God. And yet the Lord was
gloriously bringing about these things. And is that not a comfort
to us today when we see the enemies of God scheming and plotting
and seeking to undermine the gospel and seeking to do so many
evil things against the church of God? God is able to take those people
and make it totally stand on its head. We think of Moses.
Moses was born at that time when it was illegal for a baby Hebrew
boy to be brought up. It was illegal. Pharaoh had given
his edict that baby boys from the Hebrew mothers would be killed
one way or another, either in the Nile or by the midwives when
they were born. But who funded the upbringing
of Moses. Who funded it? It was Pharaoh. It was Pharaoh. The Pharaoh,
the one that had given the edict to kill all the baby boys. It
was Pharaoh that funded it. It was Pharaoh's daughter that
gave the money. Take this child and nurse it
for me and I will give thee thy wages. You see, God is able to
take those enemies of God and turn them right round so that
in their hatred and seeking to fight against God, God is able
to cause them to work beautifully in this way for good. Not that
it makes what Caiaphas said right. It was an evil thing he was saying,
but God overruled it. And that's the beauty today.
When we think in the gospel and we think of troubles that come
into our lives, that wherein they dealt proudly, wherein they
thought they were going to gain the victory, they thought they
would put to death this one, they would save their whole nation
from this one, the Lord Jesus taking power and people believing
on him and making him a king and then the Romans crushing
that uprising. that they painted this scenario,
which was not true even anyway, because the Lord Jesus, when
they wanted to make him a king, he moved away from them. He was
not seeking to be an earthly king. Nor consider that it is
expedient for us. But let us look at this in a
gospel sense. It is expedient for us that one
man should die for the people. One man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
should die for his people. and not that the whole nation
should perish, not the whole church of God go down into perdition,
but one man. You see, we have one person and
a whole nation. We think of that, we have the
Lord Jesus Christ, and we have the whole church of God, and
we have in the revelation, a number that no man can number
of every kindred, nation, tribe, and tongue, and they're all on
one side, and they all deserve to go to hell, and they've all
come short of the glory of God, and they're all destined to eternal
punishment, but for this man. Whence came they? and that have
these white garments. These are they that came out
of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore are they there before
them. Only reason, only one reason
why they're there is that they have washed that one man should
die for the people and that the whole nation, the whole church
of God would not perish because one man was going to die on their
behalf. An innocent man, a man that went
about doing good, a man that sought the glory of God, that
ever did his father's will, and yet the innocency that all that
put him, condemned him, came out with the fact that he was
innocent. And that all betrayed the exact truth that this was
the Lamb of God without a blemish. There was nothing, there was
no blemish in him. And that is why he was suitable
to be the Lamb of God. But you see, we read together
later, it says, and Jesus therefore walked no more open, this is
verse 54 of John 11, among the Jews, but went from thence into
a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and
there continued with his disciples. Verse 55, and the Jews' Passover
was nigh at hand. You see, this was close. This
is the Passover where the Lord Jesus Christ is going to eat
that last Passover supper and then go out across the Brook
Kidron, as we read in John 18, that he went over that Brook
Kidron and was going to then go in this way. This is very
close. You see, the death of Lazarus and the rising again
of Lazarus, it's very close to the Lord Jesus' own death. And you see, this is a very important
step. It was because of what Caiaphas
said that there was a justification in the minds of these Sanhedrin
that it was expedient, it was right, it was lawful in their
corrupt thinking that Jesus should be put to death because this
would be for the general good of the whole nation of Israel
and for the good of them as the ruling authorities at the Sanhedrin. And that's what says in verse
53, then from that day forth they took counsel together for
to put him to death. And then in verse 55, and the
Jews passed over his night hand and many went out of the country
up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. Then sought
they for Jesus and spake among themselves as they stood in the
temple, what think ye that he will not come to the feast? Now
both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment
that if any man knew where he was, he should show it that they
might take him. So now they didn't wait for anything
more for him to be done. If they knew where he was, that
was enough. They would take him and they
would kill him. You see, they wanted to kill
him privately if they could. But you see, as Paul says later,
these things were not done in a corner. You see, the Jews wanted
to do this deed of killing the Lord of life and glory. They
wanted to do it privately. If I just read from Matthew's
gospel, chapter 26. Matthew 26, and it came to pass
when Jesus had finished all these signs, he said unto his disciples,
ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover. This
is Matthew 26. and the son of man is betrayed
to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief
priests and the scribes and the elders of the people unto the
palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas. So Caiaphas'
house was used for this meeting and consulted that they might
take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. You see, they wanted to
do it privately. They wanted to do a private killing, what we'd call an assassination. But in verse five we have a very
interesting thought. But they said, not on the feast
day, lest there be an uproar among the people. So this council
that was held in Caiaphas's house, they came to one conclusion that
They would put him to death and they would do it privately and
they would not do it on the feast. They would not do it on the Passover. All these things that they were
determined as it were to not do what God had appointed and
yet that's exactly when he was crucified, the Passover. Judas then agreeing to betray
the Lord Jesus. They didn't know where to find
Jesus, but Judas agreed that he could show them where he was,
where Jesus would be, and they would come and take him. And
then we have the... Jesus was not privately assassinated. He was given this trial of both
his own people before the chief priests and there the the claim
was that he that he said he was the son of god that was the crime
laid against him he then went up to was handed over to the
romans to be tried by them and the great The accusation against
him there was that he would make himself a king, a Caesar. He would be a threat, you see,
to the Romans. They weren't worried about saying
that he had said that he was the son of God. That didn't mean
much to them. But they were worried about somebody
taking over the authority of Caesar. So that was the claim
that they gave when he came to the Roman trial. But you see,
this was not done in a corner. As Paul picks up when he speaks
to the Roman authorities later on when he's tried. These things
were not done in a corner. There was going to be a public
declaration of the Lord of life and glory, that he would suffer,
bleed and die in this public way, that it may be seen that
this would take place. Well, isn't it wonderful when we think
of these events that led up to what we think of at this Easter
time of the year? We think of the taking of the
Lord Jesus and this one who went about doing such good. How did
they justify taking him? They justified it on the common
good. They justified it that this would be generally good
and therefore it was, let us do, it's acceptable to do something
evil if general good is to come from it. And so the thought was
to put the Lord Jesus to death because this would be for the
common good, but little did this Caiaphas know how much he was
saying something that was so rich and pregnant in Gospel message. And we read together, didn't
we, in John's Gospel, chapter 18. And it's again mentioned
how that this Caiaphas and what he had said, John 18, verse 13,
and led him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law
to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. Now, Caiaphas
was he which gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient,
it was right, it was acceptable that one man should die for the
people. He meant it so wrongly. He meant
it that that getting rid of Jesus would be for the general good
of the whole nation of Israel. It would be for the general good
that the Romans would not oppress them and not crush them. But how true this was, in a gospel
sense, it was expedient that one man should die. You see, It's a wonderful truth,
how that the Lord uses his total enemies to preach the gospel,
to preach the good news of salvation without realising it, totally
ignorant of what they were saying. But you see, the wrath of man
shall praise him. If we think of Peter's sermon
on Acts chapter two and verse 36, therefore let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they
were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, What shall we do? We've put to death the Lord of
life and glory. We've cried out, crucify him,
crucify him. We've listened to the high priests.
We've gone along with what they were saying. They tried to present
it that this was in the best interests of the nation. Now
we've realised that we've done this terrible deed, that we've
crucified the Lord Jesus, we have taken the Son of God and
we've abused him and we've killed him. Then Peter said unto them,
it must have been shocking the response that Peter gave, repent
and be baptised every one of you. in the name of Jesus Christ. You see, this blood that speaks
better things than that of Abel, this blood spoke of mercy. It spoke of being brought back
to God through the Red Sea of his own blood. Well, the wonderful thing is
that all the events then that led up to Calvary, so far from
God's people seeking to manipulate it to fit the things that had
been prophesied. Really, Jesus' followers were,
for the most part, totally ignorant, really, of what was going on
at this time. Those who took the road to Emmaus make it absolutely
clear that they were totally bemused by what had gone on,
and for them it made them question whether he was indeed the Son
of God at all. It was not his followers that
caused it to come to pass. You see, Peter makes that very
clear also in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost. The two sides in Acts 2, verse
23, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. That's why he was taken. Ye have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. In one verse, the two sides,
the wickedness of man, him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Ye meant it for evil. God meant it for good. Nor consider that it is expedient
for us. Oh, and may we come then this
evening and realise how expedient it was for us, how necessary
it was that we have such a Saviour, that the Lord Jesus and the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit ever hatched this wonderful plan of
redemption, that there should be a way whereby sinners may
be brought back to God, that it's expedient that one man should
die for the people. and that the whole nation perish
not. Oh, Caiaphas meant it in such
a selfish way, in such a wicked way. God meant it for good. God meant it for the salvation
of his church. He meant it that the wrath of
man shall praise him. Their hatred against Jesus was
only bringing to pass those wonderful plan of salvation. whereby that
one that was innocent, that one that had done no sin, was delivered
up as a ransom for many. And this man Caiaphas, a wicked
man, a selfish man, was used by God to prophesy. And this
spake he not of himself, but being the high priest that year,
he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. And then
John adds, and not for that nation only, but that also he should
gather together in one. You see, in Revelations, it's
not just the nations of the Jews, is it? The nation of the Jews.
It's of every kindred, nation, tribe, and tongue, It's the whole
church of God, from Adam's day to this, and to the end of time. And that not for that nation
only, but also he should gather together in one the children
of God that were scattered abroad. You see, God used these solemn
events used these wicked men in all their wickedness and they
were doing it all for their own selfish reasons. Ye meant it
for evil. God meant it for good. So this step in the path to Calvary
in the path to put in the innocent one to death. This was this scenario
that Caiaphas painted, and the people painted, that if we don't
do something to this man, the whole nation will perish. So
that it's justifiable that we condemn an innocent person for
the general good of Israel. Little realizing that this was
the Lamb of God that would die for his people, that this Paschal
Lamb that they were so careful to keep the Passover, even in
the events of all that was taking place at Calvary. He was the
Paschal Lamb. He was being separated as they
were finding their lambs on Palm Sunday, as we remember it. He
was the Lamb of God that was being separated for that great
work. He was separated. And they were
all looking for their lambs, but this was the Lamb of God.
And the children, the babes, were found crying out, Hosanna,
blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Well, may
this one man be precious unto you, therefore, which believe.
he is precious. And one of them, named Caiaphas,
being the high priest the same year, said unto them, Ye know
nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that
one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation What
a blessing it is that there was the Lord Jesus Christ, that God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Amen.