Pride Without Understanding
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In our passage last week we looked at the second half of the Festival of Booths, or the festival of Tabernacles. Jesus arrived and went into the temple and taught. On the final day of the festival, the day when there was a sacred assembly and feast (similar to our Thanksgiving day), Jesus was in the temple courts teaching the people.
The religious leaders sent the temple guards to arrest Jesus (v. 32) “Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him”, but according to the last verse we looked at, verse 44, “. . . no one laid a hand on him.”
We saw that the people were divided as to whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. One big issue for them was that Jesus came from Galilee, specifically from Nazareth. They knew that the Messiah should have come from Bethlehem in Judea.
What they didn’t know or understand was that Jesus was indeed born in Bethlehem.
Today, we are going to pick up the story in John 7 and we are going to begin with verse 45.
Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
The Temple Guards
The Temple Guards
The Temple guards (who were sent to out to arrest Jesus to the religious leaders v. 32) came back without Him (v. 45a).
So the Pharisees want to know why they didn’t bring Jesus in (v. 45b).
“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
Look at the answer the guards gave them, “No one has ever spoke the way this man does” (v. 46).
“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted.
The Pharisees chastise the temple guards (v. 47). They want to know how Jesus could have deceived them. They expected more of the guard, than to be so easily dupped.
“Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?
After all the temple guards were supposed to follow the lead of the Pharisees (v. 48a).
They ask a rhetorical question: Have ANY of the Pharisees believed this guy? (v. 48b).
No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
The Pharisees answer their own question, and it is a resounding NO! (v. 49a). But they may actually be wrong!
The accusation is that the people of the crowd were stupid, ignorant people—accused because of their lack of learning (v. 49b).
This is one of those places where we clearly see the attitude of superiority that the Pharisees had. No one knew as much as they knew.
The problem is pride. It was their pride that kept them from even listening to anything Jesus had to say.
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked,
Nicodemus Responds
Nicodemus Responds
Background story:
Remember Nicodemus went to Jesus back in chapter 3.
We know that he was a member of the Pharisees (3:1a).
But he was more than that, he was a member of the ruling council (3:1b).
He came to Jesus under the cloak of darkness (by night) (3:2)
And he knew and acknowledged that no one could do the miracles that Jesus did unless that person came from God. Nicodemus realized that no one could do the things Jesus did apart from God being with him.
At this, Jesus tells him that No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are “born again” (cf. Jn. 1:13).
This statement blows Nicodemus’ mind! He cannot figure out how someone can be born twice. He is thinking in terms of physical birth and that doesn’t make sense to him at all (3:4).
This is where Jesus comes back and answers him by explaining that everyone needs to have two births: a physical birth (born of water) (cf. 1 Cor. 15:50); and a spiritual birth (born of spirit).
It is obvious from chapter 3, that Nicodemus had actually listened to Jesus, and now he stands before his own peers to ask an all important question:
“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
Does the law that the Pharisees follow allow them to condemn someone without first giving the person a hearing to find out what the person is actually doing? (v. 51). The answer to this question would have been known by all of them. They were supposed to talk to the “accused.”
The Council’s Response:
The Council’s Response:
They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
They dismiss the admonition of Nicodemus for a couple of reasons:
The put him down because Nicodemus was from Galilee.
Secondly, the don’t believe any “prophet” could come out of Galilee, much less an important prophet, or the Messiah!
So they tell him if he were to look into Jesus did not meet the criteria for being the Messiah!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Pride does strange things to us. There is no question that the Pharisees knew more than the average Jew of their day. Yet, it was their pride that kept them from seeing exactly who Jesus really was.
In our story today, the people at the festival completely missed Jesus.
Some of the people missed Jesus because they got caught up in the debate.
Some missed Jesus because they didn’t ask the correct questions.
Still others missed Jesus because they believed they knew more than they knew.
Finally, some missed Jesus because the simply refused to listen.
All of these reasons amount to some kind of pride issue. And like the people in our passage today our pride can cause us to miss Jesus! Today:
Some miss Jesus because they honestly think they are to learned or intelligent to believe in something so foolish as Jesus.
Some think they are too sophisticated to believe in Jesus and his teachings.
Still others think they are too progressive to believe in this outdated Jesus.
There is another side of pride. Sometimes pride comes in a less visible manner.
Some people think they are too “bad” for Jesus to forgive them.
Still others think they are too “stupid” or “dumb” to really understand all that it means to follow Jesus or to understand Scriptures.
How about you? Is your pride causing you to miss Jesus?
