02-11-2018 – They Just Don’t Get it: Part Two

Bible Text: John 7:40-8:1 | Pastor: Pastor Mike | Series: John |

02-11-2018

They Just Don’t Get it: Part Two

John 7:40-8:1

 

Read John 7:40-44… From the very beginning of John’s gospel account it has been clearly and repeatedly stated that it is belief in Jesus alone that brings us into a saving and eternal relationship with God.
John 20:31, “But [this is] written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

All those who believe in and trust God’s Son are given new birth into the family of God. This happens when God’s Spirit indwells us and places us in the Body of Christ at the moment of repentance and belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (see John 3:1-8, 14-16, 36).

Look again at John 7:40-41a, the people are saying that Jesus must be the Prophet, or perhaps He is the Christ (see Deuteronomy 18:15-19, Moses; Acts 3:22:23, Peter).

One thing seems clear in our text today, many of the people, seem to believe that Jesus is from God. It would be those who believed who would no doubt take Jesus’ invitation seriously to heart (John 7:37), “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”

Read again John 7:41b-42… So, some say Jesus is the Prophet, some say Messiah, but there are others who are not convinced, basically saying (verse 41b), “the Christ can’t come from Galilee, check the Scriptures, the
Messiah is to be of David’s family (see Psalm 89:3-4;

132:10-11; Matthew 21:9-11; 22:41-42).
Also, the Christ must come from Bethlehem (see

Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:3-6). This crowd is confused, they don’t seem to know that He was born in Bethlehem. Verse 43 infers that the people were conflicted about Jesus, and some of them (verse 44) wanted to grab Him, but nobody does.

This is the third time since Jesus arrived at the Feast that there has been an attempt or expressed intention to seize or arrest Him (cf. verses 30, 32). But, it was not God’s appointed time for the Christ to be sacrificed.
Read John 7:45-46… Back in verse 32 we read how the Pharisees sent the temple guards to arrest Jesus. Here in verse 45 we are told that the guards returned to the Pharisees empty handed. Their reason is that (verse 46) “No one ever spoke the way this man does.”
Read John 7:47-49… In verse 12 we are told, some in the crowd were whispering that Jesus was a “good man,” while others were saying that He “deceives” the people. Here in verse 47, the Pharisees scold the guards, implying that they have been deceived by this Jesus.

The religious rulers (verses 48-49) allege that this crowd is made up of uneducated and simpleminded fools who don’t know the Scripture, and so they bring a curse on themselves! The Pharisees see themselves as the sovereign authority on all things religious, and they judge that Jesus is not the Messiah. Read John 7:50-52… Nicodemus is a Pharisee, he is the one who came to Jesus at night (chapter 3) and declared that Jesus must be from God, based on the miracles He was doing. Nicodemus now says to the religious leaders that they themselves are going against their own law, for no man should be judged and condemned before he has the opportunity to give an account of himself (see John 12:37-43; Acts 25:13-16).

Notice (verse 52), the Pharisees come back very hard against Nicodemus, “Are you from Galilee too? Look into it and you will find out that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

To associate Nicodemus with the crude, uncultured and uneducated Galileans was a major putdown and insult to Nicodemus’ character and his position as a Pharisee, religious authority and ruler, in Jerusalem.

The Pharisees continue to demean Nicodemus for his overt challenge to their high position and authority, calling them into account for the way they are conspiring against Jesus without giving Him the opportunity to speak on His own behalf. They mockingly imply that Nicodemus doesn’t know what the Scriptures teach, basically alleging that he doesn’t know the writings of the prophets, for if he did, he would surely know that there is no prophet who comes out of Galilee.

But in reality, it is the Pharisees who are showing their ignorance and elevating their own self imposed importance; for the Scriptures do not bear out what they are saying. In fact, the Old Testament Scriptures tell us that Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Hosea, Elijah and Elisha were from the area of Galilee.

I don’t think we can know from the Scripture what influence Nicodemus had on any of the other Pharisees or the other self-righteous religious leaders. But one thing is quite clear in the Scripture and that is that Nicodemus continued to be a student of the Truth (see John 7:16-17; 14:6-7; 19:38-42).

Read John 7:53-8:1… This chapter ends and the next begins with people going to their own homes, probably because the sun was going down, the end of the day.

Jesus was not from Jerusalem, He may have later gone to stay with Mary and Martha in Bethany, but for now, He goes Mount Olivet, most likely to a Garden there, named Gethsemane [lit. oil press, for it was here that very large stone blocks were used to squeeze oil from the olives grown on this mountain].

Gethsemane is where Jesus would be arrested (in about six months), soon after which, He would be beaten and His own people, the Jews would cry out for Him to be put to death by crucifixion.
John 1:11-12, “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”

When Jesus stood up, during the last day of the Feast of Booths, and said (verse 37), “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink,” the majority of those who were there that day, either didn’t know what He was talking about, didn’t care, or they knew and were angered at His audacity to equate Himself with God.

I have been a believer and follower of Jesus Christ since August 1, 1978 and I have never looked back; for who in their right mind would climb out of a cesspool, step into a cleansing hot shower, put on fresh clean clothes, and then step back down into that cesspool.

I want to make sure that you clearly understand what this passage is saying.

Hebrews 9:26 declares that Jesus “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 8:1; 10:9-10, 13).

Please, check your heart, be sure that you are not like the majority of those in the world today, nor like the unbelieving Jews of Jesus’ day who just didn’t get it! John 3:14-16, “…the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Do you get it?
1Corinthians 15:3-4, “Christ died for [your] sins according to the Scriptures [bringing forgiveness for sin], He was buried, He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” [demonstrating the eternal life that He grants to everyone who believes in Him].
Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
John 20:31, “…[this is] written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

Pastor Mike <‘(((><