A Divisive Savior
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Divisive is one of those modern titles that people don’t want to be labeled with…
However, throughout Jesus ministry he made numerous statements that were divisive then, and continue to remain divisive today:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Luke 14:26 (ESV)
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Matthew 15:12–15 (ESV)
Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
And last week we saw that Jesus said:
John 7:37–38 (ESV)
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
The implication being that only those who believe will have their spiritual thirst quenched and will flow with rivers of living water.
See, Jesus was and is divisive. But not because He’s purposely offensive. It because He speaks the truth and calls people to repentance and to turn to God. This, by definition will offend people who have their own version of the truth. Thus, He will always be seen as divisive.
Too many in the modern church believe it’s their job to make Jesus more attractive for the lost. This is a noble desire on their part, but it’s misguided. In doing so, they are trying to appeal to a culture of people who are likely to only embrace a watered-down version of Jesus who demands nothing, allows people to feel better about themselves, never judges how people choose to live their lives, and who is passionate about the same causes they just happen to be passionate about.
So, what’s a better way for us to see Jesus and to introduce Jesus to the people in our lives? That’s what we will see this morning.
Exegesis of John 7:40-53
Exegesis of John 7:40-53
Verses 40-44
The crowds are divided about who Jesus is.
Some have an incomplete answer.
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
It is true that Jesus was both a prophet, and the Prophet…but their version of the Prophet was too small.
Some have an unmotivated answer.
These people are right, but there is no indication that this led them to follow Him either.
Thus, they believed the right thing, but they didn’t act on that belief.
Hold on, isn’t the Prophet and the Christ the same person?
We know Him to be, but many people during that time were looking for two different people, not one.
Some have an incorrect answer.
They were uninformed, and thus jump to the wrong conclusion.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was in the line of King David.
Verses 45-46
These officers were introduced in John 7:32:
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
Now, we finally see these officers returning to the Pharisees, but without Jesus.
These officers weren’t brutish, brainless guards. They were Levites, likely schooled in both the law and the oral traditions. Yet, upon hearing Jesus, they recognize that there is something different about this man.
The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”
What was it about the things that Jesus said that would cause them to risk returning without their quarry?
It wasn’t because of the crowds;
It wasn’t out of fear of riots;
It wasn’t because He was so slippery;
It was because He spoke in a way that they’d never heard before. In what way?
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
R. Kent Hughes: “…they came to arrest him, but he arrested them!”
Verses 47-52
The Pharisees show their contempt for everyone who isn’t them at this point:
The officers are deceived.
In essence, they should have known better...
“If we haven’t given him our stamp of approval, then he cannot be the Messiah. Period, end of discussion.”
The crowds are accursed.
They saw the crowds as the ignorant, unwashed masses… “people of the land”
Imagine a pastoral staff speaking about a congregation in this way...
Nicodemus is both a Galilean and ignorant.
They show their regional prejudice with this statement...
Ironically, they were wrong on each point:
The officers and crowds weren’t deceived by Jesus, they were being exposed to the truth, possibly for the first time.
As for Nicodemus, he was the only one bold enough to call them on their hypocrisy, which stemmed from their own ignorance.
Both Jonah and Nahum were from Galilee...
They didn’t heed their own advice to “search and see”, especially about who Jesus really was.
So What?
So What?
Timeless Truth: No one ever spoke like this man!
Many people today come to similar conclusions as the crowds and the religious leaders about Jesus.
Some see Jesus as an incomplete Savior.
Some see Jesus as an uninspiring Savior.
Some see Jesus as not really a Savior at all.
But, there is good news: Jesus words can challenge even the most divided hearts.
This is an important reminder to us when it comes to dealing with people’s rejections of Jesus: bring them to Jesus and let Him change their hearts and minds.
No one gets argued into the kingdom of God.
We must faithfully point people to Jesus, do nothing to hinder them from hearing the voice of Jesus through His Word, then trust Him for the results.
Timeless Truth: Christian discipleship is a call to search and see that Jesus is exactly who He said He was.
Many who reject Jesus will do so out of their own personal arrogance and feelings of superiority.
In this section we see that the religious leaders were clearly unwilling to consider that Jesus might be anything other than what they already believed Him to be; namely a false prophet, a blasphemer, and a law breaker.
They even condemn their own guards, the crowd, and even Nicodemus, one of their own. All this because these people were at least open to the idea that Jesus was something other than what they said He was.
This is an age-old problem that rears it’s ugly head constantly within human governance. It’s called a power dynamic.
For the religious leaders, they alone should be the trusted source of religious truth. If they did not approve of someone, then the people should automatically agree without question.
And, instead of risking their power base through seeking truth, even if that truth might conflict with their own, they turn to discounting and vilifying those who don’t see things the same way they do.
Principal Skinner: “Am I so out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong.”
J.C. Ryle: “We must not think it enough to know the facts and doctrines of our faith, unless our hearts and lives are thoroughly influenced by what we know. The very devils know the creed intellectually, and ‘believe and tremble,’ but remain devils still...It is quite possible to be familiar with the letter of Scripture, and to be able to quote texts appropriately, and reason about the theory of Christianity, and yet to remain dead in trespasses and sins.”
Yet, some will “search and see” that Jesus is the Savior.
Kent Hughes: “I have heard people say, ‘I reject Christianity because I have not been able to find the answers I need.’ But in talking to them, I have found that most have not looked very hard for those answers.”
But some are wise enough to search and see.
Nicodemus is one of those...
How about you?