Who Is Jesus?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
This morning we are really continuing a story that we stopped in the middle of last week. If you remember last week, Jesus has gone secretly up to the Feast of Booths, the most popular feast day of the year, into a crowded Jerusalem which is teeming with people who want him dead. When he gets there, he proceeds to reveal himself on a public stage and begin teaching an authoritative message, the same message that has people hunting him down with murderous intent. This morning, we will continue to pick up right in the middle of this teaching of Jesus, and we will see some very important things about our Lord Jesus.
First, we will see that the kinds of claims Jesus makes are simply too important to be ignored.
Second, we will see that a careful study of the evidence will confirm the claims of Christ.
Third, we will see that a belief in the claims of Christ become a foundational transformation in a person’s life.
Today I want to walk through the text of John 7 to see how these things are true, and I also want to weave a story about C.S. Lewis throughout as an example of how we can see these truths playing out in a modern context.
C.S. Lewis is most famous for his works in the Chronicles of Narnia, but he wrote many fantastic books that have been wonderful helps to me in my life. He also wrote an autobiography called “Surprised by Joy” which gives an account of his early life, which is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating biographies I’ve ever read.
Lewis recounts his early days when he lives as an Atheist and had become obsessed with the search for what he called “Joy.” For Lewis, this concept was somewhat elusive, but could be known when it was experienced. For him, he felt it when he looked at a little tiny world that he built in a tin can, or when he looked out at the mountains in the distance, or when he read the ancient philosophers, or good literature. Lewis believed that his academic pursuits would lead him to discover this Joy and even lay hold of it, and it was only a matter of time before he found it. He was confident that his academic pursuits would lead him there, but he was absolutely confident that God had absolutely nothing to do with this search for “Joy.” He thought God was a myth, a fairy tale, a convenient children’s answer to the questions of the world. He desired to brush any thought of God off to the side as ridiculous, but as we will see, the claims of Jesus are simply too great to be ignored.
The claims of Jesus are too great to ignore
The claims of Jesus are too great to ignore
Jesus had made the types of claims that can’t just be ignored.
verse 16, 28, 33
So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.
Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.
additional: John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”” (You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you are born again), John 4:26 “Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”” (Claiming to be the Messiah), John 5:18 “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” (calling God his own Father), John 5:40 “yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (Claims that life can only be found in him), John 6:53 “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you)
Though there is division, everyone is being forced to take a side
Verse 26, 31, 40, 41, 42, 45, 46, 52
And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?
Illustrate: As he looks back on his path to Christianity, he views it like a game of chess that he was playing with God. In his book “Surprised by Joy,” he begins to describe the endgame being played out. He felt something happening almost against his will in his mind: something was causing him to long for something or someone outside of himself. He began reading all the English classics, and he started being confronted with so many Christian intellectuals, and then checkmate came one fateful night while Lewis was working in his study. He says in his book, “You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms.”
Apply: The claims that Jesus made continue to impact our lives to this day. These weren’t simply claims that held significance for the original audience: he made the types of claims that will forever demand to be investigated.
Part of the mission of this church is to make the gospel unavoidable in Dearborn. By making this our mission, we are falling in line with exactly the type of work that the Holy Spirit has been active in since the beginning of the gospel. As Christians, we have come to behold something too wonderful, too serious, too impactful to ignore for ourselves, or to allow others to ignore it.
When we say we want to make the gospel unavoidable here in Dearborn, we aren’t saying that we want to start something new or make ourselves some gigantic organization thats plastered all over town; we simply desire to join together in the Holy Spirit’s work of revealing the truth about Jesus to people. The Holy Spirit is still working in people today like he worked in Lewis, or like he worked in the Apostle Paul or in Nicodemus, and the Holy Spirit is inviting you into that work that he is doing.
It is clear that Jesus is someone who cannot be ignored, and the next aspect of this text helps us to see that the evidence concerning Jesus confirms that he is in fact the Christ.
The evidence confirms faith in Jesus as the Christ
The evidence confirms faith in Jesus as the Christ
State: I want to be clear in this point. I mean to say that a proper dealing with the evidence concerning Jesus, in an objective capacity, would lead you to the conclusion that Jesus was telling the truth about himself. That doesn’t mean that everyone who investigates him ends up believing. There are plenty of people, as we see in this text, who go into the investigative work looking for reasons not to believe, and then they gather their evidence together in such a way that proves their doubts.
But it’s worth looking at the form of the debate that the crowds are having here in this text. The matter up for debate is whether or not Jesus is the Christ, whether he is as important as he claims to be or he is a malicious liar that’s misleading the people.
Those who don’t believe are proven wrong by the facts
Those who don’t believe are proven wrong by the facts
What we see immediately follow is several arguments made by people who clearly either don’t have the knowledge to be able to identify the Christ, don’t have the proper knowledge about Jesus, or some combination of the two. What we see is a rather frustrating debate which seems as though it could be easily and immediately settled if everyone present was working with proper knowledge of the situation.
For example, the first error the crowds make is with this argument:
But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
this of course is simply not true. The Scriptures have given many reasons for the people to know how to identify the Christ, including that he would be born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, be of the lineage of David, etc.
The idea that the Christ would have to mysteriously appear out of nowhere was a manmade myth. The people here did not know what made someone the Christ, and yet they were using their own misunderstanding to confirm that Jesus could not be the Christ.
Then we move forward and see another error in reason.
John 7:41–42 (ESV)
But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
These were people who understood that the Christ was supposed to come from David’s life and be born in Bethlehem, but they just didn’t know that those things were true of Jesus.
Jesus being born in Bethlehem, going to Egypt, then settling in Galilee for most of his life.
Ironically, these were all events that the Scriptures prophesied would be true of the Christ.
If these people were to investigate and “judge with right judgement” then they would eventually have run out of arguments!
But it wasn’t as though the entire crowd was opposed to Jesus.
Those who believe have their faith confirmed by the truth
Those who believe have their faith confirmed by the truth
Whats interesting here is that there are many people who believe, and they aren’t even aware of the full truth themselves. Their belief in Christ is coming from something outside of a comprehensive investigation of the facts, although a comprehensive investigation of the facts confirms their faith to be valid. Their faith came not as a result of rigorous investigation, but simply through belief.
Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
John 7:40–41 (ESV)
When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.”
The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”
Though Jesus didn’t choose to fight the claims about his birthplace, these people see past those complaints and find themselves drawn to Jesus. They believe in his claims when they encounter them.
They didn’t even know how right they were!
Illustrate: Even a man like C.S Lewis, who was as intelectual as they come, didn’t find himself believing in Jesus because of his investigation of the facts. Though the facts agreed with his newfound faith, the facts didn’t lead him there.
All he can say is, “I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. Yet I did not spend the ride in thought, nor in great emotion. It was more like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.”
He didn’t know why, but he went from not believing the claims of Christ to believing the claims of Christ. He would come to realize just how convincing the evidence was, but the evidence became confirmation for his faith and not its genesis.
Apply: What does this mean for us?
unbeliever: you will find the historical evidence surrounding Christ to be well in line with the claims of Christianity, but I doubt that a study of the evidences will cause you to believe. It is encountering the person and work of Jesus, revealed in the word of God, which breeds faith in us.
believer: investigate the historical evidence. I think it is more important for Christians to investigate these things, because you will find in the investigation of the facts a strong confirmation of what you believe in the gospel in Jesus Christ.
Transition: And what we find out about faith in Jesus as the Christ is much more than merely philosophical thinking. This is more than a way to identify on the census, its more than how you choose to decorate your house. What we find is that when a person comes to believe that Jesus is the Christ, it becomes the single most important thing in their entire life; so much so that in comparison, nothing else matters to them anymore.
If true, the claims of Jesus change everything for you
If true, the claims of Jesus change everything for you
State:
Consider those who believe that Jesus is the Christ and the ways they begin to act here.
First, the officers sent to arrest Jesus:
The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 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.”
They had a job and they refused to carry it out at the risk of being rebuked and cursed by the religious leaders of Israel. They did this because when they encountered Jesus and his teachings and his claims, they couldn’t help but notice that something was different about him. Whether or not they fully believed his claims, there was something about Jesus that caused them to marvel and refuse to arrest him.
Next, consider Nicodemus:
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?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Nicodemus is a member of the Sanhedrin, one of the religious leaders of the Jews. He finds himself in the company of those who most hate Jesus, and if it were discovered that he were sympathetic to the claims of Christ, it could lead to disastrous consequences. Thats why, in John 3, when he begins to first consider the claims of Jesus, he visits him by night. He couldn’t risk being known openly as someone investigating the claims of Christ.
In this instance, Nicodemus shows his sympathy for the cause of Christ in the most public format possible. He risks his credibility, his position, his authority, his titles, and potentially even his life so that he could show sympathy for Jesus here.
To continue into the rest of the New Testament, we see people like the Apostle Paul forsake everything he once treasured as a result of coming to know Jesus as the Christ.
To live is Christ and to die is gain
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Then you push forward into the first few centuries of Christianity and encounter a church of believers that could withstand even the fiercest persecution imaginable
Why? Because when these people came to know the truth about Jesus, they discovered something that caused everything else to fade into nothing. When someone comes to realize how precious Jesus is, they would willingly sacrifice everything and anything for his sake. Everything else can only serve as good insofar as it leads to a greater appreciation for Christ.
Illustrate: Lewis ends his autobography by revisiting the place he started. He says,
“But what, in conclusion, of Joy? For that, after all, is what the story had mainly been about. To tell you the truth, the subject has lost nearly all interest for me since I became a Christian… I now know that the experience, considered as a state of my own mind, never had the kind of importance I once gave it. It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer.
When you are lost in the woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter. The first person to see it cries ‘Look!’ The whole party gathers around and stares. It will be an encouragement to us, and we shall be thankful to whoever put it there. But we will not stop and stare much, not even if this road were made of silver and gold; We would be at Jerusalem.”
Apply:
What we have come to believe and confess to be true is of such monumental importance that it dwarfs every other matter in life. We have come to see that this Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, the one sent by God the Father to be the propitiation for our sins. We have come to behold the glory of God hanging on a cross for the sake of sinners. We have come to see redemption brought to the fallen, life brought to the dead, forgiveness brought to the sinner, adoption brought to the enemy, love given to the lowly. In Jesus Christ we have come to behold our all in all — and any good we have in this life serves as a signpost to keep us running towards Christ.
When you have come to see Christ in that way, what else is there? That isn’t to say we don’t experience heartbreak and pain, but what threats could rival such amazing blessings as those we have in Christ?
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
If you have not yet come to know Jesus Christ in this way, I implore you to meet him in the Scriptures for yourself and find this wonderful savior that so many have born witness to.
If you have forgotten this love over the course of life, return to him in his Word; for he is still there, and is still far lovelier than you could ever have imagined him to be.
Run to Jesus, sit at his feet, rest in his love.
To quote the Apostle Paul,
