Jesus had just resurrected his friend Lazarus, who had been dead and buried for 4 days and according to the Bible, many Jews who witnessed that miracle believed in Jesus.

John 11:45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
It was evident that the miracles that Jesus performed attracted the attention of all of Judea, as Jesus was a “missionary” who traveled throughout that region, ministering the gospel and performing miracles.

Anyone who witnessed those signs or heard that powerful message from God would, at the very least, have the conviction that Jesus was a great man of God, as Nicodemus himself, a Pharisee, member of the Sanhedrin, recognized when he went to visit Jesus during the night, hidden.

John 3:2 He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.

But those signs were not enough to convince the priests, who should have been the first to understand Jesus' message, and be convinced that Jesus was the son of God, the Savior, the Messiah.

But, PERSONAL INTERESTS and the fear of the priests of losing the authority and power they had over the people were greater than the recognition that the signs that Jesus performed could not be done by a normal man or a “charlatan”.

They also did not recognize and accept that God had prophesied in the sacred scriptures, hundreds of years before, exactly what was happening to Jesus at that moment.

For those men, WORLDLY INTERESTS WERE GREATER THAN GOD'S INTERESTS, so they had the Son of God arrested.

BECAUSE THEY LOVED THE GLORY OF MEN MORE THAN THE GLORY OF GOD.

John 11:
47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. What are we accomplishing? they asked. Here is this man performing many signs.
48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.

John 12:
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue.
43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

They took Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, so that he could authorize Jesus' death, as the priests could not condemn a man to death.

John 18:31 Pilate said, Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. But we have no right to execute anyone, the Jews objected.

Pilate himself judged that Jesus did not deserve to die, as he had committed no crime, but HIS PERSONAL INTERESTS WERE STRONGER THAN TAKING A JUSTICEFUL DECISION.

John 19:
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, Crucify! Crucify! But Pilate answered, You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.
7 The Jews insisted, We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid.

Finally, Pilate proposed to release Jesus for the last time:

John 19:
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).
14 It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. Here is your king, Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him! Shall I crucify your king? Pilate asked. We have no king but Caesar,"the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

How many personal interests have made people reject the Son of God:

• Preferring sin than sanctification.
• Preferring to watch TV than go to church.
• Preferring to sleep than pray.
• Preferring to read a book than read the Bible.
• Preferring spiritual coldness than having faith.
• Preferring to be deceived by the devil than to live God's truth.
• Preferring the glory of men than the glory of God.
• Preferring to live eternally in hell than to live eternally alongside God in heaven, through salvation.

OUR PERSONAL INTERESTS CAN NEVER BE GREATER THAN GOD’S INTERESTS, EVER!

The Lord bless you and keep you.

Pastor Val Martins