Untitled Sermon (3)

Drama.

You cant help but see drama in John’s Gospel. It’s in every chapter, building on the last. That is how I feel here. A half year passed since the passover festival of . Jesus has avoided Judea since he knows the antagonism that awaits him there. And there is an excitement in the crowd. There is murmuring, there is division, and all done in secret and hidden from the Jewish leaders who have outright hatred of Jesus. The crowd’s talk must be done privately, just as Jesus must appear privately. In fact, this chapter, this event, is building to verses 37 and 38, as will be seen in coming weeks.

-Jesus does not arrive to fervent displays of his popularity. This should remind us that public popularity is no proof of orthodoxy, or right belief as contrasted with heresy.

-Why was Jesus such a threat? Those that believed him spoke of him in secret. The jewish people as a whole knew and talked about Jesus, maybe even so much as to beleive he probably was the Messiah, since the pharisees were so concerned with him. But as a whole, the people avoided any public discussion or support for Jesus.

-So why the desire of the authorities to put Jesus to death? 7:7 is key to understanding the visit to the feast: “the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that it’s works are evil”. There is hostility in every age toward the cross of Christ, as indeed we see in our age. If you are willing to do God’s will, to stand for the cross, you will be hated. reference

“19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

so this is the context with which we look at today’s text.

3 words we will talk about today: Authority, willingness and judgement.

Authority

-We are not told what Jesus taught in v.15, but whatever it was the crowd was astonished and called into question his education.

-The scribes and pharisees saw it unthinkable that jesus should teach on their law having no formal training in their own rabbinical schools. Jesus was a mere carpenter, a tradesman, from galilee.

-Jesus’ answer is important to establishing his own authority as well as other true teachers who would follow.

 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

-7:16 “my teaching is not my own”....Jesus does not deny his divine status or knowledge of truth. His point is to simply imply that his teaching is not based on personal experience, learning, or insight. You see, rabbis were fond of quoting other rabbis. I follow so and so, and this was a way of establishing their authority to their audience. In similarity, I have heard many preach out of their own experiences. They teach out of themselves. This can be popular, funny and entertaining but is not what Jesus modeled.

-7:16 “my teaching is not my own”....Jesus does not deny his divine status or knowledge of truth. His point is to simply imply that his teaching is not based on personal experience, learning, or insight. You see, rabbis were fond of quoting other rabbis. I follow so and so, and this was a way of establishing their authority to their audience. In similarity, I have heard many preach out of their own experiences. They teach out of themselves. This can be popular, funny and entertaining but is not what Jesus modeled.

-We must have a correct understanding of Jesus here. I must remind us of the dual nature of Christ. Truly man and truly God. R.C. Sproul comments “We must recognize that His divine nature has all the attributes of deity while the human nature has all the limitations of humanity.” We all have a physical side and a non-physical side and we distinguish between them. If we separate them we are dead. Likewise, we do not separate Jesus from his human side and his divine side. The human nature of Christ did not possess divine characteristics.

-Jesus as a baby did not come equipped with the divine attribute of omniscience. An example of this is mark 13:32 “

32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Jesus wasn’t lying, he couldn’t! Thus there is a submission of the human nature to the divine nature.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

-in the Father’s perfect time the divine nature would communicate to the human nature.

-Thus my point is that Jesus’ teaching wasn’t his own, is was his father’s, revealed to Jesus in perfect timing, accordance and submission to God the Father.

-Preaching for Jesus was not his but “him who sent me” Only God has the credentials to speak on matters of life and death, heaven and hell, salvation and eternity. Thus the best preaching there can be is that which leaves us remarking not on the cleverness of the delivery or the preacher, but on the clarity of understanding of the bible.

-Let me explain this further: Jesus had the ability to draw a crowd. He could easily impress his listeners by performing miracles. But he still rested the authority of his teaching on the truth of scriptures. Jesus references his teaching back to writers and prophets of the OT (of which his hearers should have been intimately aware of)

-This is hanging on the wall in the foyer. Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone has authority over the faith and lives of God’s people. Most immediately I thought of Martin Luther’s reply to his accusers at the Diet of Worms:

John, Volumes 1 & 2 An Important Question

Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of Scripture or by clear reason—since I believe neither the popes nor the councils by themselves, for it is clear that they have often erred and contradicted themselves—I am conquered by the holy Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.… Here I stand. God help me. Amen.

Your responsibility is to insist that preachers proclaim the word of God and only the word of God and are bound in obedience to that very word of God. Jesus at the time of his baptism was formally ordained into his messianic office, he state he was “sent” to teach. Likewise preachers should be called, trained and ordained by a church. Yet it not a degree or certificate of ordination that gives authority to anyone’s teaching. The preacher’s authority comes from one place: the word of God

17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Willingness

English Standard Version Chapter 7

17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority

-Jesus makes a great promise here. Many have corrupted the truth of scripture or they manipulate scripture. So how can we be sure of truth?

-He says that those who seek to do the will of God will know God’s truth when the Word is preached.

Jn 3:19

English Standard Version Chapter 3

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil

Notice here and other parts of the Gospel there are two kinds of people who hear Jesus: Those who sit and listen at his feet to learn and those who stand before him arguing and tricking.

-We just covered difficult doctrine in the previous chapter. An important issue to say the least. Are you someone who comes to difficult doctrines and argues with the Bible? Or do you sit quietly at Christ’s feet? “trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding”

John, Volumes 1 & 2 An Important Promise

Augustine was one of the most brilliant minds ever, but he established a rule that whenever he found that he disagreed with the Bible, he concluded that he was the one who was wrong, and he submitted to the teaching of God’s Word. This is what it means to “will to do God’s will”: that we are willing to believe and obey what the Bible teaches, even when—indeed, especially when—it requires a revision in our thinking and actions.

-If there is a readiness to do the will of God, the capacity for discerning God’s message will follow. We must realize we are not the prinipal, we are the student.

-This is why Jesus’ hearers did not receive him in faith. There wasn’t something wrong with Jesus’ teaching style, or his message. They were simply unwilling to be taught by God’s word, to see the messiah standing before them as contained in their own redemptive history.

-7:18

Realize that man’s chief end is to glorify God and be with him forever. Just as we commit to doing God’s will, we must place God’s glory first in all things. A self exalting sprit cannot coincide with proclaiming God’s Word.

Judgement

Finally, Jesus confronts the listeners before him by calling into question their own obedience to the law. This crowd failed to see the truth about Jesus even as he taught from the temple, in the middle of a feast that was given in order to point to him. This crowd was unwilling to obey God’s will, unwilling to glorify God and thus were unable to exercise right judgement.

-To make this point he reminds them that the Jewish leaders are seeking his life. V.21 “I did one work and you marvel at it”. (This took place approximately one year ago) They exercised wrong spiritual judgment about the sabbath because they didn’t understand God’s word.

-The sabbath, as we talked about earlier, was given as a day of rest, in order to glorify God and dwell on his gifts and grace.

-Jesus explained circumcision. The Jews were willing to carry out circumcision in order to fulfill a command. This involved cutting away a baby’s flesh. How irrational these people then that they are angered by a man having his whole body restored.

-As I have said in a past sermon, we want to avoid legalism. The pharisees were consumed with legalism, because it glorified themselves. Pride. They were so good and right in upholding the sabbath. But they missed the fact that both circumcision and the healing of the lame man are expressions of God’s redemptive work.

-If we are to honor God and do his will, then we have an obligation to learn how to judge rightly. Jesus says “do not judge by appearances, but with right judgement.” This means that we need to understand God’s spiritual purposes for those things he has ordained. As we are taught by God’s word we must make right judgments about all kinds of matters in our lives. We need to desire to understand God’s purposes for all things through the humble seeking of God’s will in the Bible. This is an obligation for the christian

In closing,

there are two paths outlined here, and we have covered the principles that are contained. Many hearers of Jesus were blinded by their own unwillingness to do God’s will. They did not seek God’s glory but their own.

We have learned to day from scripture that If you seek to do God’s will, you will see how frail you are, and recognize your need for forgivness that only Jesus christ can give . you will recognize your need for the strength he affords. You can stand with the crown: “you have a demon”. Or you can stand with peter: “you have the words to eternal life…you are the holy one of God”

today we are will look at authority and obligation. There is an authority over us, an authority we must submit to. And there is an obligation we have in which we must receive, discern, and judge rightly that authority.

Authority:

Authority:

The Jewish notion of authority was specialized. No one possessed inherent authority. Authority was passed down and conferred from rabbi to rabbi through the ordination process. Reshuth succeeded moses and was preserved through the generations. So, Jesus’s problem was not ordination, but a lack of ability to source his reshuth. Jesus’ answer is clear: His authority came from God, properly conferred to him.