Sunday Sermon John 7:45-53 Series Part 4
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Good Morning and welcome to First Community Church of Milton-Freewater, Oregon, Church at Home.
Thanks for joining us.
Here, at First Community Church we worship God in Spirit and In Truth one verse at a time.
Today, let us open our Bibles to John 7:37-53 where we will be finishing our study in this chapter.
Cathy and Gary Hendricks are moving to Kenniwick so please keep them in prayer as the Lord leads them to a new town and church family. They have expressed their gratitude for the last 15 years and sent out an email that we will all be missed. We will miss you both!
Prayer
Read John 7:37-53
Review
Over the last few weeks we have learned about the water ritual that took place during the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths.
On the last day of the feast, the seventh day the priest poured out the last pitcher of water and Jesus stood up and made the invitation:
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
As we made our way through verses 40-43 last week, we learned that the crowd responded differently to Jesus:
Some say He was a Prophet
Others said, This is the Christ
Still others questioned where he came from
We also learned that the main stream of thought in Judaism during this time was that the Prophet and Messiah that were phrophecized about were 2 different people.
People respond differently here to Jesus as do we.
How did you respond to Jesus this week when he gave you the invitation to come to Him? Did you run to Him with excitement? Or did you quench the Spirit? Did you share Jesus this past week when the Spirit prompted you or did you become paralyzed in fear?
Church Jesus is always giving us an invitation, in fact he is always giving everyone this invitation:
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Church, Jesus is always saying come!
We also learned the when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached or is mentioned in spirit and in truth, it will not allow you to remain neutral, we either accept the Gospel or reject the Gospel.
Did you accept the Gospel this past week, or reject the Gospel this week for something else?
Church, this is not just for the non-believer, but for the believer as well.
And finally, here is verse 43 we find that there was division among the people.
Why? That is simple: Jesus
So there was a division among the people because of Him.
Jesus him self said that he did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Swords divide and here we see the division.
Division- schisma- we get our word schism from this, it means exactly what the text is teaching us which is there was division.
Can you imagine the frustration among the Jews? Can you imagine how their belief system was being challenged?
Has your belief system ever been challenged? Are you grounded enough in the biblical text to confirm with others what you believe?
Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
Seize/Take- piazo-it means to grasp, to take into custody, to arrest, to hold on to.
I love the definition here for seize.
To hold on to.
They were not going to hold on to Jesus for the right reasons, but rather for the wrong.
Their belief system was challenged and it was forcing them to reach out by force and kill Him.
Church, most wars both within our own families, country, as well as in other countries are over belief systems.
Have you really taken a hold of Jesus? Is he your Lord and Savior? Or is he just someone you go to once in a while?
Have you learned during this time away from Sunday church the importance of abiding in the Vine? Spending time with Jesus?
See when our prayer life is not what it should be we easily complain, and the grace that has been given to us is not given away.
I believe the Lord is calling his church during this time to take a hold of Jesus in a way that we have yet to do! God’s desire for us during our time a way from one another is to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!
What lessons have you learned during this pandemic? Or are you a negative Nathan or Nancy? What are you doing different today, than days past? Or are you satisfied with mediocre?
Church, let us cry out to Jesus like never before, let’s prepare each day for the war that we are in and let us be ready to share the hope that has been given us!
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
Defense- apologia- defense (legal) n. — the speech act of attempting to prove some act or belief to be reasonable, necessary, or right; especially occurring in a court of law.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Church, Jesus preaching and teaching made the Jews very hostile, very uncomfortable, and actually caused them to want to kill Him, WHY?
Why did they want to kill Him?
For telling them the truth, for preaching the truth of God. What truth?
The truth that their righteousness could not save them, only He could save them.
These people were not willing to acknowledge they were dirty, filthy sinners, who could not be right with God on their own.
They hated Him for telling them that and they wanted Him dead.
Isaiah says it like this:
But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
Jesus’ hour had not yet come, therefore, they could not seize Him, yet… Not until was consistent with God’s perfect timing.
Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”
Did you see that? The officers were amazed by Jesus’ teaching!
The officers were the policemen of Christ’s day.
They were not afraid of crowds like the Pharisees and these officers could care less if people liked them.
We may recall from verse 32 that the Pharisees and chief priests sent these guys to seize Christ.
The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.
Church, they not only don’t arrest Jesus, but they are totally impressed with the way this man speaks.
The officers could not find one thing wrong about His teachings that gave them reason to arrest Him.
There was power in His words.
Jesus’s words did not allow these officers to reamin neutral , theirs hearts were touched, their hearts were pricked, their hearts were cut. There was great emotion going on. Let’s look at verse 15.
And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?”
Jesus did not go to there seminary or Bible College, therefore they questioned him.
True teaching can move the emotions, but that doesn’t mean it changes a heart.
We see throughout this text that nobody confessed Jesus as Lord, yet!
Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”
The Pharisees question the officers and attempt to confuse them.
The officers thought he was a good teacher at this point.
Keep in mind that these are Temple Police that were from the tribe of Levi, therefore they were Levites trained up in the tradition and customs of Judaism.
They marveled at His teaching, everything they had been taught at that moment was being challenged. Conviction was upon them, what did they do?
While they did not accept Him as Messiah as far as we know, they did not openly reject Jesus either.
John 1–11: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Confused
They did not know what to do with Him. Caught between the power and grace of His message and the hatred of their leaders, they were paralyzed into inactivity.
But the religious leaders claimed that He was a deceiver and that people were cursed that followed him.
Read John 7:10-15
Religious people will always try to trip you up through tactics of confusion.
Are you deceived?
Deceived- pla-nao- to be misled v. — to be or become misled from a proper belief or course of action. To cause to wander, to lead astray. To delude with false statements.
Be careful, beware, the tactic that the Pharisees used then, is still being used today:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
By virtue of their position as religious leaders, the Pharisees should have been loving, caring shepherds over God’s people, teaching them His Word, binging up their wounds, and leading them by example in the ways of the Lord.
However here, we see their true colors
A great chapter to study or just read about shepherds is in Ezekiel 34.
No doubt the Pharisees would have sent the officers back out to seize Jesus, but Nic at Night speaks up.
Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”
Nic is mentioned 3xs in John and each time he is mentioned, he is identified as the one who came to Jesus by night.
Back in John 3, Nic encountered Jesus at night and there time together produced fruit, because Nic stands up for truth, for Jesus and for the law.
Nic was knew that the Pharisees were not giving Jesus an honest hearing.
Praise God for people like Nic that will stand up, speak up, and not be passive in the midst of wrong.
Do you have a Nic in you life that is willing to speak up, when no one else will?
See the rulers had already passed judgement and were trying to arrest Him before he was giving a fair and lawful trail.
“Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”
Nic knew the Law, he knew his Bible and was probably thinking on Scriptures like:
“You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
“Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’
What did Nic want the Pharisees to consider about Jesus? What is the text speaking to us or causing us to consider?
His Word and His works>
Jesus was not only a Teacher, but he was a miracle worker
In fact, Jesus had pointed to His works as proof of His Diety in John 5.
And He repeatedly urged the people to pay attention to his words.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Seven: Feast Fight (John 7)
The two go together, for the miracles point to the messages, and the messages interpret the spiritual meaning of the miracles.
They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”
You can hear the sarcasm of the religious leaders here :
Are you also from Galilee?
They refused to admit that Nic was right in asking for a fair trail, but the only way the could answer him was by means of ridicule.
This is an ancient debate trick church: when you cannot answer the argument, attack the speaker!
They went on and challenged Nic to search the Scriptures to see is any prophets have arise out of Galilee.
Jonah was from Galilee Church and Jesus said Jonah was a picture of Himself in death, burial, and resurrection:
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
There are other texts In Isaiah 9 and Matthew 4 that shows us that a Prophet will come form Galilee.
How do you feel about the people we have talked about the last few weeks? they did not respond to Jesus’s invitation. There was disbelief, debate, and division. Where do you fall? How do you respond to Jesus?
Had they followed the conviction that was pressing upon their hearts, they would have bent their knee and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, but they did not. Instead:
And everyone went to his own house.
Do Not let this be you! Don’t shut off your computer, your phone, your tablet, before you come to Jesus. Respond now!
I close with an illustration:
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”
The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister, please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do,” he pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop” With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. “It's my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up.” Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me.”
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. “Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:
Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention! God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.
Prayer
Announcements
Pray for one another, reach out to one another during this time.
Reach out to Cathy and Gary Hendricks and say good bye.
Look for emails.
Benediction
For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
The Lord bless you!
Your Mission starts now!