Unwitting Prophecy

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Isaiah 6:1-7
• Hymn — Holy God, We Praise Your Name
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 25, Section 1
• Scripture Reading — Genesis 50:15-21
• Hymn — God Moves in a Mysterious Way
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — My Jesus, I Love Thee
• Sermon
• Hymn — Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
• Benediction
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: Unwitting Prophecy

Scripture: John 11:45-57

I. The Unwitting Prophecy of Israel's Destruction

A. The Sanhedrin convenes to address the threat Jesus poses

1. The chief priests and Pharisees fear that if Jesus continues, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will destroy the nation (John 11:48)
2. "Our place" refers to the temple; in Jewish thought, the destruction of the temple equaled the destruction of the nation as a theocratic people

B. Caiaphas was a shrewd and politically gifted high priest

1. His 18-year tenure contrasted with most high priests who lasted barely a year
2. He was no fool — yet all his brilliance was no match for God's foreordained plan (Acts 2:23)
3. Unwitting prophecy was a recognized concept in Jewish thought — prophets could prophesy without knowing it

C. The irony: killing Jesus did not save the place and the nation — it sealed their judgment

1. John writes after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Titus in 70 AD
2. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, foreseeing its destruction because it did not recognize the time of God's visitation (Luke 19:41-44)
3. They sought to protect the temple by killing the one in whom God now tabernacles among his people (John 1:14)

II. The Unwitting Prophecy of Israel's Salvation

A. John explains that Caiaphas, as high priest, prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation (John 11:51)

1. In the intertestamental period, with prophecy largely absent, the high priest took on a prophetic role
2. Caiaphas spoke better than he knew — Jesus would not spare the nation from Rome's wrath but from God's wrath as a propitiatory sacrifice

B. The Passover setting is not incidental (John 11:55)

1. Over a million Jews gathered in Jerusalem as pilgrims for the feast — all Israel witnesses the crucifixion of the Passover Lamb
2. He is named Jesus — "he will save his people from their sins"

C. The earliest church was Jewish — God's salvation came first to Israel

1. At Pentecost, another pilgrimage festival, 3,000 Jews are added to the church (Acts 2)
2. Thousands more believe in Jerusalem (Acts 4:4; Acts 5:14; Acts 6:7)
3. The language of Israel "rejecting" Christ refers to the leadership, not the many who bowed the knee — just as China's government rejects the gospel while millions of Chinese Christians believe
4. God has not rejected his people (Romans 11:1-2); we should pray that the natural branches be grafted back into their root, Jesus the Jewish Messiah

III. The Unwitting Prophecy of the One People of God

A. Caiaphas prophesied not for the nation only, but to gather into one the scattered children of God (John 11:52)

1. Israel's end-time hope centered on the Messiah regathering the dispersed children of God
2. Intertestamental writings narrowed this hope almost exclusively to dispersed Jews, losing sight of the Old Testament's clear inclusion of the Gentile nations

B. The Old Testament always anticipated Gentiles gathered with Israel under Messiah

1. Isaiah 2:2 — all nations shall flow to the mountain of the Lord
2. Isaiah 56:7 — God's house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples; he will gather others besides those already gathered
3. Isaiah 60:6 — the nations bring their wealth and praise to the Lord

C. Christ gathers one flock from all peoples

1. John 10:16 — "I have other sheep not of this fold; there will be one flock and one shepherd"
2. When lifted up, Jesus draws all people to himself — Jew and Gentile unified under one banner

D. Application: even in chaotic times, the enemies of God unwittingly serve his purposes

1. All of history — wars, political upheaval, persecution — is the unwitting design of God's enemies working toward the victory of his people in Christ
2. Peter addresses the one people of God — elect exiles of the dispersion, Jew and Gentile — as those guarded by God's power for an imperishable inheritance (1 Peter 1:1-5)
3. If you have Jesus Christ, you have the things that make for peace — be still, be steadfast, your enemies work for you and for the Lord's anointed