The Greatest Obstacle to Faith
Chasing Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 3 viewsThe greatest obstacle to the faith of the Jews was their perceived knowledge of who Jesus was. They struggled to see beyond the facts and opinions that they had collected. As they weighed these facts and opinions against the evidence of His works, there was a disconnect between the two. Division arose as some chose to abandon their own opinions in favor of the evidence of His works. Others clung to their opinions. Jesus states that those who cling to their own understanding over the truth of God will never have a part of Him.
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Know God
Know God
John 7:25-
At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
The Feast of Tabernacles was a celebration of remembering God’s faithfulness to the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. The feast centered around the recognition of God’s provision during this time. Through the celebration, God’s provision of water and manna was highlighted as well as the provision of a prophet to lead them.
How fitting is it that the Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated in the chapter after Jesus feeds the five thousand, reminiscent of manna from heaven.
God had made a promise to Abraham that He would make from His descendents a great nation. These were the same people who had been in Egypt during the time of famine and had been enslaved during their time there. It was these people that God would draw out a reveal himself intimately to. The people of Israel had been set apart as the ones who would know God. This had always been the claim that Israel held the greatest pride in, they knew God.
As Jesus speaks to the crowd, He challenges how well they knew God. If they really knew God as they had claimed, then they would know Jesus for He is from God and is God. Jesus knew God, they did not.
To obtain knowledge about someone and to know intimately someone
How Do I Respond
How Do I Respond
John
At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”
The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
Here, the crowd stood perplexed because their knowledge about the Messiah and their knowledge about Jesus did not fit together. How do we respond when it appears as if Jesus does not fit with our culture, our traditions or our promises?
God has invited us into an intimate relationship with Him, but our time to answer that response is not indefinite.
What Is My Response?
What Is My Response?
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
The water ceremony at the feast of Tabernacle commemorated the Lord bringing forth water from the rock. God had provided the people of Israel life from that water. In the same way, Jesus has come to give us life from the Spirit. The level to which we experience this life is fully dependent upon the faith that we place in Jesus and the depth of intimacy that we share with Him. It is not enough to just drink the water, we must commune with the One who has given the water.