John 7:45-52: The Self-Righteous Root of Unbelief

Scripture Reading

Philippians 3:7–9 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Intro

It's not hard to look out at the world and see that we are living in a clown world of unbelief and confusion.

A crazy town where the world has been turned upside down on its head where everyday you seem to be asking yourself can it possibly get any more ridiculous or any worse.

And the answer evidently is it can, and it doesn’t look like we are anywhere near the bottom.

Which begs the question. What’s the gospel’s answer for the world we are living in today.

Whats keeping people from coming to Christ and believing in Him?

What is the root problem, or at least one of the root problems thats driving the unbelief and rebellion against God we see in the world today not only in individuals but in the world at large?

How is our culture justifying more and more sin and devolving into greater and greater lunacy like we are seeing now?

Why is the World the way it is and most importantly…what is the answer for it?

In John 7:45-52 the Pharisees, opponents of Jesus, give us case study of unbelief…a living breathing picture of what makes people reject Jesus Christ.

You can’t fix problem without identifying it first.

And in our day where unbelief is rampant in the world, identifying this problem can not only give us an answer for individuals we come into contact with as we share with them the gospel...

But also our culture as a whole.

What is the cause of the madness we see swirling all around us as our culture goes further and further down the drain and how do we as salt and light answer it?

Not only that, but this case study of the unbelief of the world also gives as a church a warning of the kind of unbelief we should guard against in our own hearts.

The kind of unbelief that if we allowed it to take root, would drive us far from Christ into the sin and rebellion of the world.

Where instead of being salt and light, we would be conformed to the world looking just like the world in our own lives, families, and church.

The Pharisees in the Gospel of John help us to better know ourselves and understand the world we live in today.

How did we get here and what’s the way out?

And here’s John’s answer…

Self-Righteous Pride is the root of unbelief.

Its pretty simple.

Why is the world the way it is, at least our world as it is today?

Why does the world reject Christ?

What keeps people from coming to Jesus?

Self-righteous Pride.

The lie that we are good. We don’t need saving. And we have the wisdom necessary to determine good and evil for ourselves.

Let’s start with point number 1…

I. Self-Righteous is the Root of Unbelief

John 7:45-46 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?”

Back in verse, the Chief Priests and the Pharisees had sent these Temple Officers to arrest Jesus (John 7:31-32).

Ever since chapter 5, they had been looking for an opportunity to kill Jesus because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God incarnate in Human flesh.

They were opponents of Jesus.

They saw Him as a blasphemer and a deceiver.

And eventually they would be the very ones who would hand Jesus over to the Romans and lead the people to reject Christ saying “Crucify Him! We have no King but Caesar.”

So the Chief Priests and the Pharisees sent these temple officers to arrest Jesus about the middle of the feast.

And evidently they were looking for an opportune time to arrest Jesus that wouldn’t cause an uproar among the people because they don’t come back until after the last day.

And when they come back they come back empty handed.

The Chief Priests and the Pharisees ask, Why did you not bring Him?

And The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

These weren’t brutish thugs.

They were temple officers, Levites trained in all matters of religion given by God to help the priests with the worship of God’s people.

And they are absolutely dumbfounded by Jesus.

Throughout the gospels we hear people wonder at Jesus’ teaching because He spoke as one with authority and not as their scribes (Matthew 7:29).

This is a major theme in John. Jesus is the One True Prophet.

As the Son of God who came down from heaven He speaks with first hand knowledge on all things concerning life and salvation straight from God Himself.

And that’s the irony of the officers own words!

Literally in Greek you could translate it as “No man (No human being) ever spoke as He does.

And the reason is obvious for anyone that has read the gospel of John. He is no mere man.

He is the Son of God and the Word of God…the Truth and Promise of God, incarnate in human flesh (John 1:14).

The full revelation of the Father full of grace and truth.

They heard Jesus’ words from John 7:37–38 “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”…

And they were cut to the heart.

They heard the word of God living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart and still they did not repent and trust in Christ (Hebrews 4:12).

They hear the truth and the promise but they resist it…they push it down.

This shows as we will see the hardness of heart and unbelief that we all share because of our sin were it not for God’s grace.

And then verse 47 we start to see the Pharisees self-righteous pride of unbelief.

John 7:47–49 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

The sense of the Greek is “Did He fool you too?”

Are you one of those stupid people that have been led astray to follow after Jesus?

You can just feel the pride and arrogance of their unbelief.

To them its unthinkable that anyone would follow after Jesus.

Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in Him?

The Religious Betters? They know better than the people.

But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.

The Pharisees put themselves over and above the people.

All these people following Jesus…they don’t know the Scriptures like we do.

They are ignorant of the Law and they don’t follow the Law as seriously and as strictly as us.

Background on Pharisees

Remember who the Pharisees were.

Their very name comes from the Hebrew word for “to Separate.”

So they were “the separated ones.”

Those separated from the world and set apart, holy to the Law of God.

They were people very serious about religion.

They were zealous for the Law.

So zealous that they did not just require strict adherence to the Law, but they added all kinds of commands around the Law.

They added laws upon Laws…man made traditions to guard the Law so that no one would ever come close to breaking one of God’s commands.

That’s why Jesus said in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines [of God] the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9).

And They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger (Matthew 23:4).

Far from purifying worship and true religion before God, they turned the worship of God on its head.

Worship became a system of external rituals and religious rule keeping.

Instead of looking at the Law and throwing themselves on God’s grace.

They saw a ladder to heaven.

They trusted in the Law for their righteousness.

They could earn salvation by works of the Law.

That’s why they said this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.

They are no where near as holy as us!

They don’t keep the Law like we do!

All the curses of the Law are on them.

They trusted in their own self-righteousness and saw themselves as good.

Good enough to merit salvation and good enough to see themselves as better than everybody else.

And here was the irony…

They did not keep the Law...

And because they rejected Christ, they were actually the ones under a curse…

The curse of the Law…death…for all our sin.

They Did Not Keep the Law

For as holy as the Pharisees thought they were, they did not keep the Law.

Back in John 7:19 Jesus said Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?

By seeking to kill Jesus the Pharisees had already committed murder in their heart.

A violation of the 6th Commandment.

And then, even right in that moment they are so spiritually blind in their self-righteousness they did not see how they were breaking the Law right then and there.

Verse 50…

John 7:50–52 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before [We are going to come back to him], and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night giving us that famous John chapter 3 brings up a very simple point.

The Law very clearly says you judge with equal weights and measures (Deuteronomy 1:16-17, 17:4, 19:18).

And when charges are brought against someone they should be investigated thoroughly and fairly.

And you should not be hasty in judgment but give a man an opportunity to plead His case because one seems right until the other is heard (Proverbs 18:17).

All rights under the law they were denying Jesus.

So of course the irony is that they were breaking the Law by seeking to murder Jesus in the first place…

And then further breaking it by the way they were trying to go about doing it.

They were so self-righteous and so blind that they did not see how far from keeping the Law, they were compounding sin on top of sin on top of sin.

Which leads to the second irony of the Pharisees…they were the ones actually accursed.

They Were Under a Curse

The Pharisees thought they were righteous before the Law.

They had no need of Christ or anyone to save them.

They kept the Law! They could save themselves!

And yet for all their striving and knowledge of the Law, they were ignorant of what the Law really says.

And irony of ironies, they were ignorant of the very verse they were using to condemn the people.

Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.

That curse is death, judgment, and the full outpouring of the wrath of God.

For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

And as James says Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (James 2:10).

This is what the Pharisees were blind to in their proud self-righteousness.

They could not see that all their works of the Law couldn’t wipe away even one sin.

God demands perfect righteousness. Perfect obedience to the law.

So even if you were to live a lifetime of perfect obedience to the Law…every jot and tittle…but sinned at one point…that one sin is all it takes is one sin to make you guilty of all of the Law.

It marks you as cursed, and God’s righteousness and holiness demands that every debt of sin must be paid.

That’s why Paul said…

Galatians 3:10; 13 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

If you’re trusting in works of the Law, you’ve already failed.

Because who could say they’ve never sinned…not even once in any single thought, word, action, or deed?

But that was the Pharisees.

They had put their trust in works of the Law, and that self-righteousness…that false belief that we are good enough or holy enough to earn salvation all by ourselves…made them blind to Christ and kept them from coming to Him for salvation.

You can even hear the anger and the resistance they have to Jesus.

Have you also been deceived?

This ignorant crowd of fools and nobodies…they are accursed.

And even to Nicodemus, one of their own, Are you from Galilee too?

Are you from those podunk sticks. Is that why you’re sticking up for Jesus?

Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.

Well have you heard of Jonah? At least he did.

In their extreme response to Nicodemus who merely suggested that they obey the very Law they so prided themselves on, you can see their hatred and vitriol for Christ.

All logic goes out the window? Nothing else matters.

Their self-righteous pride makes them willfully blind towards Christ.

And therefore blind to the only salvation God has provided for all of their sins.

Going back to Galatians 3. Verse 13

…Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”

All of us, every single one, is born under a curse.

We are all lost and dead in our sin doomed to die under God’s holy and righteous wrath.

And there’s nothing you can do to save yourself.

But God so loved the world that He gave His only Son Jesus Christ (John 3:16).

Jesus was born under the Law.

He took on human flesh and lived the perfect righteous life we all failed to live.

And He died on the cross in our place for our sins.

And as Paul says, He redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us.

As He hung on the cross all of our sins and the sins of everyone who believes in Him were laid on Him.

And God took the wrath He had against us and poured it out on Christ as our substitute.

He had no sin of His own to die for and yet He suffered the curse of our sin when He died on the cross.

He is the only way to salvation.

But for all their knowledge…all their striving to keep the Law…all their prim and proper religion and best efforts...

The Pharisees could not see it.

In fact, they were wilfully blind to it, trusting in their own righteousness instead of the only true righteousness that comes from God, Jesus Christ.

Principle

And so here’s the principle we see from the Pharisees.

Self-Righteous Pride is the root of unbelief.

Sometimes people don’t come to Jesus because they don’t want to give up their sin.

They love their sin.

They can’t imagine life without their sin.

And one of the reasons they love their sin is because they don’t actually think their sin is as sinful as it really is.

Its not so bad and not that big of a deal.

And so that love for sin and self-righteousness keeps people from coming to Christ.

I don’t want to give up my sin and I don’t really need Jesus anyway.

That’s why I said self-righteousness is the root of unbelief.

At some level every single person that rejects Christ and does not come to Him, at least in part because they are blinded by their own self-righteousness.

They don’t actually think they need Jesus because they don’t believe their sin is as bad as it actually is.

Why would they need Jesus to save them?

They can just save themselves or find some path of salvation…some other religion or other god…that is enough to cover whatever sin they think they do have.

In other words, none of their sin is so bad that they can’t find some way to pay it.

That’s self-righteousness.

And the irony, again that’s the major theme of today, is that self-righteousness will always keep you from Jesus Christ.

Jesus said If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37).

You have to thirst before you come to Christ otherwise what are you coming for.

You need to see your sin for what it really is.

Have the eyes of your heart opened to see that you are guilty and condemned before God.

You are not good enough and you will never be good enough.

But that’s the good news of the gospel…Jesus is.

He is our righteousness.

And His sinless life and sacrificial death is more than enough to cover all…ALL…of your sin.

Clown World

But this is where I wanted to take a moment and zoom out.

To move from the individual to our culture at large because like I said the Pharisees are a case study of unbelief…

Not just on a micro individual level but also in a way that can help us understand our world and the cultural moment we are living in.

How did we end up in clown world where everything is turned upside down and nothing makes sense.

We are arguing what a man is and what a woman is.

What truth is.

Its no secret that our world and our culture rejects Christ, but how did we end up here and what’s the answer to get us out.

This is where I think this theme of self-righteous pride can really help the world we are living in and why our world is the way it is today.

Inherently Good

The fundamental lie of our culture is that people are inherently good.

That’s the problem.

We don’t call sin sin.

That as long as you’re not hurting somebody else…(as long as that somebody else is not an unborn child inside their mother’s womb)…you should be free to do what you want.

Live your truth.

Live your life. Who is anyone else to tell you no?

This is why we’ve a culture on psychology and counseling instead of repentance.

The truth is inside of you.

You don’t need repentance from your sin. You need to build up the good.

Realize your full potential.

Live for your ultimate truth and your ultimate happiness.

That is the highest good. That is the life lived to the fullest.

And so now…there’s no restraint.

Everything’s off the rails.

That’s how we got into clown world.

Our whole culture says people are good and so everyone should live how they see fit.

Absolute freedom not realizing that what they call freedom is actually slavery to sin.

And the only real sin in the culture is telling someone no or keep them from living their full potential whatever they determine that to be.

And so now instead of restraining evil, we encourage it and give approval to those who practice it calling good evil and evil good.

Well did Isaiah speak of us in…

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Doesn’t that sound like our culture?

And its all because of self-righteousness.

It might be a different self-righteousness than the Pharisees but its self-righteousness all the same.

But here’s where this get’s really crazy.

There is nothing new under the Sun.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done [again] (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

We might think we are in clown world, but this is just the Garden all over again.

What was the Temptation in the Garden?

Genesis 3:4-5 But the Serpent said…“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The temptation in the Garden was to be God ourselves…to kick Him off the throne be our own highest authority and determine for ourselves good and evil.

To say we know what’s best for us and we don’t need to listen to God or what He says.

We’ll have the final say over what sin is.

And does that not sound like the world we live in today.

Same song different verse.

We reject God and we do what we want because we think we are good and we know what’s best.

We trust in our own wisdom instead living all of our lives in submission to God.

So when you look out at clown world its just self-righteous pride.

Rejection and rebellion against God.

Its Adam and Eve all over again.

We don’t need God. We don’t need Jesus.

Our sin’s really not that bad.

We can determine for ourselves what is good and evil and we don’t need Christ. Thank you very much!

When like the Pharisees, the irony is, what our culture needs to hear is your true self is accursed.

Condemned under the wrath of God and the only thing that can get us out is the grace of Christ.

Answer

And so what’s the answer? What’s the way out of clown world?

I really think the answer is pretty simple.

What we need is the good news of Total Depravity.

I think one of the main reasons we’ve gotten here is we stopped calling sin sin.

We’ve bought into the vocabulary of the world of talking about sin as brokenness and weakness.

Now I’m not saying we’re not broken and weak.

Of course we are!

But we are because of our sin.

And its like most churches are afraid to talk about sin or the cultural idols of our day because they are afraid of the wrath of the world.

You saw how the Pharisees reacted; venom…vitriol…poison.

But again…the theme of today…here’s the irony: By not calling sin sin we lose our saltiness and we rob the world of the very grace they need in Jesus Christ.

Not that we call out sin in a way that hates anyone or self-righteously like the Pharisees assume we are better than everyone else.

But in a way that we love our enemies and speak the truth in love.

Exposing sin not to just condemn other people for how bad they are but to shine a light on sin to lead them to the true light and hope of the gospel.

That’s why I called it the good news of Total Depravity.

How could that be good news?

How could it be good news that we are lost and dead in our sin condemned under the wrath and judgment of God with no hope or chance of saving ourselves?

Because our hope is not in us…its in the grace of God.

The grace God freely offers to everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ.

The good news of Total Depravity is that we really are worse off and more sinful than we ever dared to fear.

And their really is nothing we can do to save ourselves.

But God is ready, and willing, and mighty to save.

what is impossible with man is possible with God.

God is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

In Ezekiel 33:11 He says: Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

You see the church is so afraid of the self-righteous wrath of the world that we have bought into the lie you can’t call sin sin.

But its only by calling sin sin that you can point people to God’s amazing grace in Christ.

Because the good news of Total Depravity and God’s free grace in Christ is the only answer for the Self-Righteous Pride of clown world we currently find ourselves in.

We have to confront the world with their sin and their self-righteousness.

We can’t be afraid of standing on God’s Word and being hated by the world.

Its the only way to save them from their sin.

To tell them we are not good, we are not free…we are slaves to sin and sinful to the core.

But God has promised grace in Jesus Christ and even though we aren’t righteous, cursed under the Law, He can makes us righteous and wash us clean.

He can save us from sin and death and the curse of the Law because He became a curse for us.

But only if we repent of our sin put away our self-righteousness and trust in Him with simple, Humble Faith.

And that takes us into a very brief point number 2 to close out the sermon…

II. Humble Faith is the Root of Eternal Life in Jesus Christ

With Nicodemus we see a contrast here but its subtle…and you wouldn’t necessarily see it unless you had read the whole Gospel of John first.

Its like a breadcrumb pointing us to what genuine faith looks like in the stark contrast the self-righteous pride of the Pharisees.

The Pharisees refused to come to Christ out of their self-righteousness.

It had blinded them and left them dead in their sins under the curse of God.

But Nicodemus gives us a different picture…at least the beginnings of one.

John 7:50–51 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”

Its not that we can say that Nicodemus is definitively a Christian at this point.

He’s probably not.

But in these verses we at least start to see the seeds of faith taking root in Nicodemus’ life.

Remember he’s the one who came to Jesus by night and said Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him (John 3:2).

There’s humility right there.

He came to have a conversation with Jesus. To hear His words and find out what He was really about.

And in that conversation Jesus said You must be born again.

How can someone be saved and have eternal life?

Remember, Nicodemus was a Pharisee…one of their own number.

He had put all of His hope in works.

Of doing enough to earn salvation.

And in one short sentence Jesus destroys His entire life.

Nicodemus…there’s nothing you can do…no amount of good works can save you.

You must be born again.

You must be born from above. Born from heaven. Born of God!

All your Striving…all your Works…all your keeping of the Law no matter how detailed or scrupulous it is...will never get you there.

They can’t save you.

There is nothing you can do to save yourself.

Your only hope is God’s grace.

In response Nicodemus asked How can a man be born when he is old?

He wasn’t being stupid.

He knew what Jesus was saying.

He couldn’t save Himself. There was nothing he could do.

It was all outside of his own power.

The only thing he could do was throw himself on God’s mercy and grace.

And as far as we know, Nicodemus left that night unchanged.

And here in chapter 7 he’s not expressing full-blown faith in Christ, but only coming to His defense.

But at some point Nicodemus becomes a disciple.

After Jesus died, he was one of the ones who took Jesus’ body and prepared it for burial (John 19:38-41).

What was the difference? Humble faith.

Nicodemus gave up his pride and self-righteousness…

He repented of his sin and any illusion that he had that that he could save himself.

And he trusted himself wholly to Christ.

And that’s the call for all of us.

Because Humble Faith is the only thing that leads to eternal life.

The call to follow Christ is a call to renounce all of our sin and all of our self-righteousness.

To put all those things away and trust only in Christ and His sinless life, His sacrificial death, and His bodily resurrection for all our salvation.

Application

But what about after?

For non-Christians the application of this sermon is pretty simple…Come to Christ.

Renounce your sin and self-righteousness and trust in Him.

But what about believers? How do we apply this sermon today?

Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

We must guard our own hearts from self-righteous pride and unbelief.

There must be a diligence and zealousness that we remain steadfast and holy to the Lord.

One of becoming like the Pharisees looking down on everyone instead of remembering all the grace we have is solely because of Christ.’

And number 2, not just trusting in Christ with humble faith but living a life of humble faith not trusting in our own wisdom but holding fast to the wisdom of God’s Word.

Remember what we said about clown world.

Part of living in clown world is self-righteous pride and trusting in your own wisdom over God’s.

Its Adam and Eve all over again.

And why did Adam and Eve sin? Because they did not believe or follow what God had said.

Nothing further from the Christian.

Self-righteous Pride trusting in our own wisdom…that we know best to run and determine our life is the way of the world.

And the Bible says Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2).

Don’t trust in your own wisdom but be transformed.

Stand on the Word.

Hold fast to the Word.

We say it all the time: We bend to the Word. The Word does not bend to us.

What God says goes and we follow the Word no matter the cost.

Self-righteous Pride and unbelief refuses to listen to the Word.

To humble ourselves before the Word.

But that is the life of humble faith.

And that means two things.

Highest Authority

Number 1…The Word is our Highest Authority.

It is the lamp to our feet (Psalm 119:105).

Its truth is our truth no matter what the world says.

For God’s Word to be our highest authority means that it rules over every area of our life.

How we think...

How we act.

How we evaluate our life and our circumstances.

How we look at an understand the world.

What is true…good…beautiful…desirable…and right.

In other words the Word is the grid through which we view the world and we strive to live a Word-centered life.

And that’s number 2…

Way of Life

The Word is our Highest Authority and The Word is our Way of Life.

What God’s says goes.

This means we live our lives according to the Word.

That we don’t just say that the Word is true but that we live as if the Word is true.

And at the end of the day that looks like obedience at all costs.

When temptation comes…when sin comes…are we going to trust in our own wisdom.

Say its not that bad…its good for food and a delight to the eyes…

Or will we say no.

God’s Word trumps my emotions.

God’s Word trumps my wants.

Trumps my desires.

His Word is true and I’m going to hold fast to that.

We stand on the Word and we hold fast to the Word.

Conclusion

The life of the Christian is a life of Humble Faith.

First and foremost in trusting in Christ.

In renouncing all of our sin and all of our self-righteousness and trusting in the only perfect righteousness of Christ.

Because of sin we are all under a curse.

But Christ in His love, laid down His life and became a curse for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Gal 3:13, 2 Cor 5:21).

And secondly in living out that humble faith in our everyday life.

In trusting in God’s Word and not our own wisdom which is the way of the World.

In saying…God’s Word is my highest authority and God’s Word is my only way of life.

We stand on the Word and we obey the Word at all costs.

Let’s Pray