That was the excuse given by the soldiers sent to arrest Jesus when asked why they returned without Christ in custody. Not because of weapons–words. But what those sent to apprehend Jesus heard were not just words, they were the words of The Word. Why were these men, who were sent to take Jesus, taken with the words of Jesus?
Because what the soldiers said was true and what they heard was “Truth.” No one ever spoke as Jesus, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” John 6:63 This Sunday we are going to listen not to what others said about Him; we are going to listen to what He said about Himself. If you listen to His Words you will hear the voice of God.
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Notes Transcript Video AudioJohn 7:40-52
If you’re here this morning and you do not have a Bible with you, slip up your hand. I want to put a Bible in your hand. Open it up to the gospel of John. Now we’re going to be looking at several passages, but we’ll probably land mostly in chapter 7. We may take a few minutes or so to get to you. If you’re in the foyer, you’ll want a seat in here. There are a few. There are some down front. I know sometimes that’s intimidating to people, but there are some seats along the side, so if you’re out in the foyer and you’d like to come in you’re welcome to. If you’re out in the foyer and you like it, that’s cool too. It’s closer to the coffee.
The Bible isn’t really that complicated. A lot of times when we hear people talk about the Bible, we hear it in such a way that it seems like you have to know Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic, and you have to know history behind the stories, but how many of you have ever taught Sunday school? Most of the Bible is narrative. It’s just stories, and it’s really easily within the grasp of even a child.
When you sit down and you look at the things of the Scriptures, now admittedly particularly some of the Old Testament stories you don’t want to tell a child right before they go to bed. Otherwise, you’re going to be sitting up a long time.
But when you look at the stories Jesus told, it’s like, “This Man had a hundred sheep, and then this one little lamb got lost. Then Jesus left the 99 and He went and looked for this one little lamb.” You know what that means? It means He looked for that little lamb. It’s not that complicated! It means this Shepherd really had this really intense affection not just for us humanity in general, but for us individually. It’s really simple.
This woman has this necklace, and one of the pieces of the necklace, the coin off this necklace she lost it, and she searched the whole house. Turned the house upside down. Swept through everything. Got candles. Looked everywhere because she was looking for this one little piece of this necklace. You ever lost something you really wanted back, like your phone? How many of you have lost a phone? Man! Man, if we could just get all those phones, we could build a building.
A couple of weeks ago, I was coming back from Israel. I was landing. We landed at 5:30 in the morning on Sunday morning, and I’d gotten all my stuff together, but when you’ve flown 13 and a half hours, it doesn’t matter how much you think you have your stuff together. You don’t. I thought I had all my stuff together, but I didn’t. I left my phone, and when you go up the steps at the airport on the international side, once you go up that escalator, there’s no going back down. They’ll shoot you!
I realized, Oh no! I left my phone! I turned to the lady and I said, “My phone’s on the plane.” She goes, “You’ll just have to ask when you get to the other side.” Getting to the other side, it’s like you have to go through all that stuff. It takes me about an hour later to get through customs. I go to the place and I say, “I’ve lost my phone. I know where it is. It’s on this plane.” But somebody found my phone, and some of you actually may have even got called because at 7:30 in the morning he’s just calling people on my cell phone. You know, found this cell phone.
But what’s the message of this lady? What is this story about? It’s a really, really simple story, and so many times we have this idea that the Bible is somewhat unapproachable and really it’s going to require scholars and all this stuff, but so much of the Bible is like taking a child to the beach. You spend a day even with a two- or three-year-old at the beach, and they build sandcastles, and they run from the waves, and you can say to that child, “Would you like to go back to the ocean tomorrow?” The child knows immediately what you’re talking about. They understand. Oh, that’s an ocean.
But now the fact that they understand this is a beach and an ocean does not mean they grasp the magnitude and the depth of it because like the ocean, it’s not really that hard to get your feet wet. It’s not that hard to jump into it, but the magnitude and the depth and the breadth…There are places in the ocean today that still remain unexplored.
John is a real simple book. It’s not complicated. I’ve spent the last two months just walking through some very old, familiar stories and trails, and it’s like just kept me awake at night, and what I have discovered is a depth I had…Let me just share some things with you.
Look over at chapter 1. I’m going to show you something as you go through here. We started here. “In the beginning was the Word. The Word already existed. The Word was God.” (John 1:1) “The Word,” verse 14, “becomes flesh and dwells among us.” (John 1:14) Then you find this testimony of John the Baptist, and then you find the first disciples, and Jesus is calling these men to walk with Him.
The Bible isn’t even written in this classical Greek. It’s just written in this colloquial, street-level Greek. These disciples whom Jesus chose were not rabbis. They were working class, nonacademic, blue-collar fishermen who weren’t intellectually elite. They were not the privileged trust fund children. They were just working class people, and He calls these guys, and they start following Him, and the first place He takes them is not to a seminary, but to a wedding, and He does this amazing miracle of turning the water into wine. We talked about that. There is this embarrassment of inadequacy, and Jesus just absolutely does more than enough.
Then He takes them down to Jerusalem, and this whole temple story here. Then in chapter 3…we’ve all read the story…there’s this man. This is where we actually encounter somebody who is an academic elite. He is respected in the Jewish…He’s a part of the Sanhedrin. He’s even a little bit embarrassed to come down to talk to Jesus. He doesn’t want anyone to see him or know that he’s seeking out this Galilean gang crowd.
He comes to Jesus, and Jesus says, “Here’s what you need to do: You really need to be born again.” Nicodemus kind of puts his cerebral hat on and goes, “How can a man be born? Can a man enter his mother’s womb?” Jesus goes, “No! No! No! Don’t go there! That’s not what I’m talking about at all. What are you even thinking?” He says, “No, you have to born of the Spirit.”
Just such simple stuff! He says, “You have to be born again. How can you be a respected leader and you don’t understand these things?” John 3:16: You’ve said it over and over again. Probably one of the first verses you memorized as a kid in Sunday school. Look at this: “For God loved the world so much…” (John 3:16). Is that not clear? God, the Creator of the cosmos, loved you so much “…that He gave His only begotten Son, so that…” look at this, “…everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge…” not to condemn, “…the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
Look at this: “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him.” (John 3:18) Do you get that? There is no condemnation for anyone who believes in Him. No condemnation…none! I don’t know about you, but that’s a big deal to me. That’s massive to me.
I remember when I was a kid, I’m not going to blame it on my pastor, I’m not going to blame it on my parents, I’m not going to blame it on my youth pastor, but somehow I heard this in my head that I kind of thought maybe an evangelist or something was trying to get a bunch of people saved or something. He says, “When you stand before God, everything you have ever done is going to be like on this massive movie screen.” Even at 12 years old, I knew that wasn’t a good idea.
Everything you’ve ever done, and that was bad enough. But then I heard somebody say, “Not only anything you’ve ever done, but everything you’ve ever thought about doing.” I don’t know about you, but I have a fairly active mind, and it’s creative. There’s almost nothing I haven’t thought about doing. Almost literally…almost. I mean there are a few things I haven’t thought about doing, but there’s almost nothing.
The Bible says: There is what? How much condemnation? None! None! Do you understand that not only there is no condemnation, but you, if you have believed into and trusted what Christ did for you on the cross, not only you have been forgiven, but you have been imputed all the righteousness of God! Now that’s good news. That’s good news, and it’s actually better news than just, “Oh, that’s cool.”
Now I know this. If yesterday you had bought a lottery ticket and won $33 million, and I said, “How was your day yesterday?” you wouldn’t go, “Hmm, pretty good.” You’d go, “THIRTY-THREE MILLION DOLLARS! I won $33 million!” No condemnation. Yeah, amen. No condemnation. Yeah. Not only no condemnation, all the righteousness of Jesus.
Then they’re baptizing, and there’s a whole story in there. In John 4, you have this Samaritan woman. You know this story. Jesus takes His disciples who were really not like…They were B-team guys, okay? You understand? You ever been on the B-team? You ever been the second choice? Maybe not even second. Maybe you’re like third choice. They weren’t rabbi material. They were just fisherman, but everybody thinks they’re better than somebody. Say amen. You know that’s true. When you’re trying to excuse your behavior, you can always go, “At least I’m not…” Yeah, you know.
So Jesus takes them through Samaria, which they were, “At least we’re not Samaritans.” Among the Samaritans, there was a person the Samaritans used to say, “At least we’re not that woman.” Jesus goes and sits down while the disciples go off to find something to eat and drink. I don’t know if you’ve ever gone on like a short term mission trip or went somewhere that you really wanted something to drink you thought wouldn’t eat you alive. So they’re out trying to find kosher food in Samaria, and they can’t find any.
Jesus goes and sits down on a well and waits for this woman whom the rest of the world has rejected and says, “Hey, I’d like to have something to drink.” You know what? This woman goes, “Who are You?” The disciples don’t even want to eat the food there. Jesus is going to drink out of the cup with this Samaritan, wicked woman.
Now then that’s a story. Now here’s the question…Do you know who you are in this story? You’re not Jesus. You’re the woman, and Jesus comes and He sits down at your well, and you’re rejected and unworthy, and He says, “Hey, I’d like something to drink.”
“You’re going to drink after me?” “Yeah, I want to drink after you, and what’s more, I want to drink after you, and I want to give you some water that you’ll never ever, ever thirst again.” It’s insane.
“So who are You?” He goes, “Well have you ever heard of the Messiah?” “Yeah, we’ve all been waiting for Him!” “Here I am. Here I am. You’re looking at Him.”
Chapter 5, He heals this lame man. Look at chapter 5, in verse 1, because I’m going to throw something at you, and we’re going to dig into this a little deeper, but I want you to start thinking through this. In chapter 5, notice right there in verse 1, it says, “Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.” (John 5:1) Now this specific holy day we’re not told which holy day it was because what he’s going to do is going to focus in on the fact that this was a Sabbath, and over and over again you’re going to find the truths Jesus is speaking here are timed-tagged to religious feasts.
In that day, the synagogues and the temple were on a three-year reading pattern of the Torah, so every three years they would read completely through the Torah, and on different occasions when the specific holy day…Leviticus 23 gives us that calendar…there were specific readings they were supposed to read on that holy day.
For instance, if you go to church on Christmas Eve, you would expect one of the narratives of the birth of Christ to be read. There was a certain rhythm that was established. Now what you find when you start looking at this is that Jesus responds to this reading, and He stands up, and the claims Jesus makes about Himself correspond to those readings. For instance, when Jesus reads out of Isaiah about “The Spirit of Lord is upon Me,” that was the customary reading. It was the one supposed to be read in the synagogue that day, but Jesus didn’t just read that reading. He says, “By the way, you’ve seen it fulfilled right here, right now. I am the fulfillment of what you have been seeing here.”
He heals this lame man, and then in chapter 6, He multiplies the bread. Then He walks on the water. Now look at chapter 7. Let’s just go over there for a minute. Chapter 7, verse 40: “When the crowds heard Him say this, some of them declared, ‘Surely this Man is the Prophet we’ve been expecting.'” (John 7:40)
Now then, I want you to look at your handout sheet here. This is the first blank. The Prophet we’ve been expecting. This was one of the readings they would have been doing. It’s out of Deuteronomy, chapter 18. It’s a prophetic passage that describes Moses as saying, “I will raise up a prophet.” (Deuteronomy 18:18) When Israel was in trouble, they would cry out, “Lord, send us the Prophet.” They were saying, “This is the Prophet. This is the One Moses has been talking about.”
Look at verse 41. “Others said, ‘He is the Messiah.'” (John 7:41) That’s the second thing. He is the Messiah. They think this must be the Messiah. Literally, the liberating King. “Still others said, ‘But He can’t be! Will the Messiah come from Galilee?'” (John 7:41) Now they didn’t take time to look on the reality He was born in Bethlehem, but they knew this was His primary dwelling place, and this was where His community was up in Galilee.
“For the Scriptures clearly state that the Messiah will be born of the royal line of David, in Bethlehem, the village where King David was born.” (John 7:42) On your notes there, that’s the Messiah, Micah 5:2. “So the crowd was divided about Him. Some even wanted Him arrested, but no one laid a hand on Him. When the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded, ‘Why didn’t you bring Him in?'” (John 7:43-45)
Now look at this. “We have never heard anyone speak like this!” (John 7:46) That was their answer! “We have never heard anyone say the things He has said.” Now here’s what I want you to roll around in your brain this morning: The things that are said about Jesus and the things Jesus said about Himself, if anyone else ever said those things, we would say, “They’re insane…absolutely, totally insane.”
The guards who were sent to arrest Him came back. “Why didn’t you arrest Him? Did He have a weapon?” “No, He had some words, and what He said, we have never heard anything like that before.”
Now if you’re taking notes, He is the Prophet they’ve been expecting. He’s the Messiah. He is the Teacher. Now when I say He is the Teacher, He was indeed the master Teacher. But there have been a lot of good teachers. There have been a lot of people who were masterful in their teaching. He was an amazing, amazing Teacher.
John 5: I’m not going back and dig this up, but He is the miracle Worker. Oh, and there are seven major miracles He does in John. They’re called signs. In John, chapter 6…and we’re not going to go back in and dig this up either…but one of the miracles He does is that He multiplies the bread.
As soon as He multiplies the bread, it says they came to make Him the King…the King! Now the phrase that is here, they came to take Him by force, literally, they’re going to kidnap Jesus. Now that’s silly, isn’t it? “We’re going to kidnap the King, and we’re going to make Him be the King.” Like you can actually make Jesus do anything. You know, even when He dies, He says, “No man takes my life from me. I lay it down.” He is the King. He is the Ruler.
In John 7, as you start reading down through here, it says, “We’ve never heard anybody say these kind of things.” Look at verse 47. “‘Have you been led astray, too?’ the Pharisees mocked. ‘Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in Him?'” (John 7:47-48) You know what they’re saying? They’re saying, “Look, we are the smart ones. You’re the dumb ones. You believe us. You don’t have enough sense to know what you’re doing. None of us believe it. It can’t be true.”
“This foolish crowd follows Him, but they are ignorant of the law. God’s curse is on them!” (John 7:49) Now notice in verse 50, you find Nicodemus beginning to speak up about Jesus, but he does it in kind of a sly sort of way. He’s not ready to say, “Yes, I am also a Jesus-follower,” but he kind of slips it in on the side. It says, “Then Nicodemus, the leader who had met with Jesus earlier, spoke up. ‘Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?’ he asked.” (John 7:50-51) Immediately, they snap back at him, “Are you from Galilee, too?” (John 7:52) This is the most ridiculous thing they can say. “You’re from that backwater place also!”
“Search the Scriptures and see for yourself—no prophet ever comes from Galilee!” (John 7:52) You’re going to run into Nicodemus again. Nicodemus is mentioned again in chapter 19, verses 38 and 39, with this other guy named Joseph of Arimathea. When Jesus is crucified, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are two fairly influential guys. It’s an interesting phrase they have there. It says they were “secret disciples.” They really in their heart wanted to be one of the disciples, but they just couldn’t get it out.
Have you ever been there where you wanted to get some words out and you just couldn’t, and maybe by the time you could it was almost like too late? I feel badly for Nicodemus. I’m happy he did this. I mean he gets 75 pounds of ointment. It’s like he’s overdoing it at this point, you know. He wants to make up for the fact he didn’t come full bore.
I grew up in Tucker, you know that? That’s Galilee. I grew up on this street called Brownlee Drive, and I loved my neighborhood. One of the gentlemen about five houses down from us, his name is Bobby Booth, and just a wonderful family friend, and I love him. I love his family. He’d had Parkinson’s for a number of years, and he passed away, and I had the honor of doing his funeral.
His wife, Myrna, used to pray with my mom. All the ladies in the neighborhood on Thursday morning would get together at 6:00 in the morning and pray, and they’d pray for our neighborhood, and they would pray for their kids, and they would pray for the world, and they would pray for the Soviet Union. They’d pray that the people behind the Iron Curtain could have Bibles. I remember waking up hearing those silly women in the living room praying that the gospel would be open in the Soviet Union and thinking, That ain’t going to happen. Listen, don’t underestimate people’s prayers, particularly women. Amen.
Well Myrna was one of those women, and she has Alzheimer’s. I was at the funeral home and I was sitting there, and she looked over at me, and she goes, “Buddy, what happened to your hair?” I said, “It’s gone.” She goes, “That’s okay.” She looked at me, and she goes, “I love you.” I said, “I love you too.” She goes, “Where’s Bob?” I said, “Bob’s in heaven.” She goes, “Oh yeah, God told me He was going to take him to heaven this week.”
A few minutes later, I’m sitting there, and she goes, “Buddy, where’s your hair?” I said, “It’s gone.” She goes, “That’s okay. I love you!” I said, “I love you too.” She goes, “You can’t say ‘I love you’ too much.” You know, it reminded me of my own mom. When mom had Alzheimer’s, she really couldn’t remember much of anything except “I love you. I love you.”
Now let me tell you something. I’m just going to say this as clearly as I can. Don’t wait to tell people you love them. Don’t wait. If you love somebody, tell them you love them today. Text them in the sermon…it’s okay. I know I don’t have your full concentration. I’m not under that delusion at all.
Nicodemus waited, and you know it’s great, but it’d been wonderful if…Whole different story. I have to keep going here.
He’s the Prophet. He’s the Messiah. He’s the Teacher. He’s the Healer. He’s the King. Nicodemus is the one in chapter 3 who says, “We know You’ve been sent from God.” In chapter 1, verses 15 through 20, it’s John the Baptist who says that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. Do you understand what a massive statement that is? Sometimes it’s so hard to figure out when’s the right time for mercy and when’s the right time just for truth, and he says, “Jesus is the epitome of mercy and truth, that He is greater than Moses.”
It’s the woman at the well who says, “Our father Jacob dug this well. Are You greater than Jacob?” “Yes, I’m greater than Jacob. Yes, I’m greater than Israel itself.”
In chapter 8, you find the Pharisees are coming to Jesus and say, “You tell us who You are.” They said, “We’re of our father Abraham.” Jesus says, “You know what? You’re not really of your father Abraham. Abraham rejoiced to see My day.” They go, “Do You think You’re greater than Abraham?” Yes, He’s greater than Abraham. He’s the very I am.
In John, chapter 9…look over there for just one minute…Jesus heals this man. He’s born blind. When this man starts seeing, the Pharisees, the big theologians of the day come walking up to him and say, “Tell us how you were healed.” He says, “I don’t really know. I don’t really understand it. Here’s what I know: I couldn’t see; now I can see your ugly face. That’s what I know.”
“Well we want to know who do you think that Person is and how did this happen?” He goes, “Here’s what I know: I know I was blind, and now I can see.” Do you know that’s what a witness is? That’s what a witness is! It’s just somebody who says, “All I know is I don’t know exactly how it fits together. Here’s what I know: I know I was blind, and now I know I can see.”
Jesus goes, and He finds this guy, and He says to this guy, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John 9:35). Now that’s an interesting phrase. That comes out of Daniel, chapter 7. It’s about God Himself. It’s the Ancient of Days. Daniel, looking through the telescope of prophecy says, “I saw another like unto the Ancient of Days, the Son of Man, and He’s going to be a judge, and His kingdom will never, ever end.” Jesus says to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John 9:35)
He goes, “Yes, I do!” He goes, “You’re looking at Him. You’re looking at Him.” You notice what the man does? If you’re looking at that passage, here’s what the man does: As soon as Jesus says, “I am the Son of Man,” he falls on his knees, he falls on his face, and it says he worships. He falls on his face and he worships. This is really big because John does not use this word worship very often.
I put the references down there how John uses that word, if you’re looking at your notes. Revelation 4:10, Revelation 5:14, Revelation 11:16. All those are where the elders fall down before the throne of God and worship. In 19, you find John is transferred up into the heaven of heavens, and he’s walking around with this angel, and this angel starts talking to him, and it so intimidates John that John falls on his face to bow down before this angel, and the angel goes, “Hey, wait! Whoa! Wait a minute! Up, up, up, up, up! I’m just an angel. Don’t worship me. I’m just like you.”
What you find even in Acts, chapter 10, when Peter goes over to meet with Cornelius, Cornelius has been praying, and as soon as Peter goes, “God has sent me,” Cornelius falls on his face, and Peter goes, “Hey, no, no, no, no! Don’t do that. Don’t do that. I’m a man just like you. I’m a man. I only have a message. It’s nothing in me.”
When Paul and Barnabas are out preaching, all of a sudden they think they’re gods, and Paul rips his garments and says, “Do not worship us. Do not fall on your face to worship us. We are men exactly like you are.” It’s this title “Son of Man” that when Jesus is standing before the high priest, and He’s being judged, he says, “Who do You think You are?” He says, “You will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.” The high priest rips his robe because he knows the claim Jesus is making upon Himself. Philippians, chapter 2, and verse 9, describes this Jesus as the “name above all other names.” (Philippians 2:9)
There on the bottom of your sheet, Colossians, notice what it says. It just kind of densely packs all of this in. “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom…” this is what we have, “…we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)
Look at this. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (Colossians 1:15-20)
Look at that. The guards weren’t kidding when they said, “Nobody has ever said this stuff before.” They weren’t just talking about His teaching style. They weren’t just talking about the way He enunciated His words and the word pictures He painted. They were talking about what He said about Himself.
What did He say about Himself? “I’m the Bread. I’m the Life. I’m the Light. I’m the Shepherd. I’m the Resurrection. I’m going to speak, and I’m going to call the dead to life.” Do you understand you cannot put those words in any other person’s mouth and even say them with a straight face? Even good people, powerful people, people who are amazingly intellectual!
I mean, if Einstein said, “I am the Bread,” you’d say, “No, you’re a watermelon head. That’s what you are. You’re an idiot.” If Churchill stood up and said, “I will call the dead to life,” you would go, “Somebody see and get a doctor for him.” Moses can’t say this. Abraham can’t say this. Peter can’t say this. Paul can’t say this. No preacher can say this. Nobody can say this. Nobody has ever said what Jesus said.
If you put those words into the mouth of any other man, that man would be none of those things. Either Jesus is everything, or He’s nothing. It’s our only choice! Now our choice is…How are we going to react? What are we going to do?
With Nicodemus, he just kind of tried to play it cool and throw in a good word for God every once in a while. With the blind man, he just fell on his face. With the Samaritan woman, she runs and says, “Hey, I’ve found a Man who has told me everything. This has got to be the Messiah.” I know what we’re going to do because Philippians says someday at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. My question to you and to me is…Why wait till then?
Let’s pray: Father, we thank You for You. Lord, we repent for being underwhelmed by that which should be overwhelming. We repent for not being captivated. We repent for the idea that we could take You into our custody and have You when the only thing possible is just to let You have us. Lord, we repent for our ingratitude, for the fact that we don’t acknowledge the fact not only we’re forgiven but we’ve been enriched with all Your righteousnesses. We repent of the fact we don’t run out and tell all our friends not about church or a preacher or the last book we read, but about how amazing You are. No one has ever said the things You said. In Your name we pray, amen.