John 7:25-36

Thank you to our music ministers. Always. We

just got the best in town. That's just all

there is.

That's right. Get any Bibles open with me to

John.

In a John type of week, by now you know what

that means.

I love preaching Jesus in action.

I really, there's nothing better to preach.

John 7, verse 25, and we come back now to

really what this is, is just one day

in the life of Jesus. And isn't it interesting

that the story of the Gospel of John in

particular,

you remember in John 1-1, it starts in

eternity past. In the beginning was the Word,

and Word was

God, and Word was with God, and Word was me. L

ashen, 2nd of August, verse 14, "But it goes

from there

through the life and the ministry of Jesus on

earth." So it covers his whole life while he

was here in his incarnation, and it even

throws in some of eternity. None of the other

Gospels do that.

And yet, there are large portions of the

Gospel of John that focus on one day. There

are also large

portions of John that focus on one week, and

this is one of those. So we picked this back

up from

where we were last time. It's the middle of

the week. It's October. It's the fall. The

harvest

is pretty much done. Remember, it's the time

of the Festival of Booths. And we're now, at

this point,

in the life of Jesus. We're just six months

away from the spring and the Passover that

Jesus will

be crucified at. So we come to where we are

really in the life of Jesus in the Gospel of

John. We're

really coming to the last leg of Jesus'

journey here on the earth. And we talked last

time about

the Festival of Booths, one of three great

Jewish feasts that all Jewish men were

required to attend.

And if you remember, I told you, the Festival

of Booths remembered the time of God's

provision

and protection of the Jews and the wilderness.

Really, Booths means tents, and the tents that

they stayed in for 40 years before they

entered into the Promised Land. And at this

feast, like

all the other major feasts in the city of

Jerusalem would be packed, Jerusalem would be,

to overflowing with hundreds of thousands of

people, literally. And really, this was one of

the feasts that just had the most joyous

celebration and was kind of cool. I know my

grandkids would

like this. They had tents that they would set

up all over the city. They would set them up

in the

streets. They would set the tents up in the

rooftops, and everybody just had a great time

with the Festival of Booths and Feast of Bo

oths. And people would come from Galilee,

they'd come from Peria, they'd come from all

over Judea, and really all the towns around

Israel, the villages, all these people are

gathered here at one time in Jerusalem. I mean

,

even Jews from other parts of the world would

come back to Jerusalem if they had the means

and were able to celebrate this feast. And the

center of gravity, as you know, in the

city of Jerusalem, which you could see from

afar off, you know, is the Herodian Temple.

It was made of cedar, it was made of marble,

and it even had gold plating on it, so it

would

shine in the sunlight. And the massive, if you

remember, I've described it to you many times,

the massive outer courtyard of the Gentiles

that would just be topped with people and

engaging in

all of the celebration and the events. And

think back to our last message. Jesus very

wisely waited.

Remember, his brothers wanted him to come, "

Come on, let's go down to the feast." And they

would

usually go in a caravan with the family. He

said, "No, you all go down. I'm going to come

later."

So he waited until the mid-week to go down to

the feast because he knew that the Jewish

leaders

were wanting to kill him. We've ramped up big

time in that situation. And so he waits until

everybody got real settled into town and they

're thinking, "Well, this middle of the week,

he's

obviously not coming." And right at that

moment, when everybody thinks he's not coming,

Jesus comes into the temple courtyard and he

starts to teach. And that's what we find him

continuing to do in our text for today, which

is going to be verses 25 to 36 of this 7th

chapter.

Interesting to consider before we get into it,

there's a trend of rejection that just

continues

to escalate here with Jesus in his earthly

life. There is, in fact, this progressive

rejection.

We've been seeing it in our study of John that

continues all the way through the ministry of

Jesus. John made it clear back in the first

chapter, you remember? He came to his own,

his own people, the Jewish people, and his own

received him not. And as we've been noting,

by the time we get to this, the last week of

Jesus' life, many more people than just the

Jewish leaders

are going to be rejecting him. By the time we

get to Passover week, so many of them will be

crying out for his execution. Remember? Cruc

ify him. Possibly really the most horrible

death

ever invented by man. So let's start. Let's

start by reading our text in verses 25 through

36. God's

word says, "So some of the people of Jerusalem

were saying is this not the man whom they are

seeking to kill?" Look, he is speaking

publicly and they are saying nothing to him.

The rulers

do not really know that this is the Christ, do

they? However, we know where this man is from,

but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows

where he is from. Then Jesus cried out in the

temple teaching and saying, "You both know me

and know where I am from, and I have not come

of myself,

but he who sent me is true, whom you do not

know. I know him because I am from him and he

sent me."

So they were seeking to seize him and no man

laid his hand on him because his hour had not

yet come.

But many of the crowd believed in him and they

were saying when the Christ comes will he not

perform more signs than those which this man

has, will he? The Pharisees heard the crowd

muttering

these things about him and the chief priests

and the Pharisees sent officers to seize him.

Therefore Jesus said, "For a little while

longer I am with you, then I go to him who

sent me.

You will seek me and will not find me, and

where I am you cannot come." The Jews then

said to one

another, where does this man intend to go that

we will not find him? He is not intending to

go to

the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the

Greeks, is he? What is this statement that he

said,

"You will seek me and will not find me, and

where I am you cannot come." Now I want you to

notice

what sticks out to them is what Jesus said in

verse 34. Look at verse 34 again,

"You will seek me and will not find me, where

I am you cannot come." And then look at verse

36.

They repeat that. They do in 36. What is this

statement that he said, "You will seek me and

will not find me, and where I am you cannot

come." Of all the conversation here that they

have with

Jesus, that's the part that really sticks out.

That's the part they repeat. So what does it

mean?

He's saying to them big picture, there's going

to come a time in your life

when you're going to seek me and I won't be

there. Now that's not a new idea in Scripture

Genesis 6.

My spirit will not always strive with man.

That's why Isaiah says, "Seek the Lord while

he may be

found, call upon him while he is near." There

are many, many warnings in the Bible about

waiting too

late. You know anybody or have you ever

encountered anybody? I'm going to get to that.

I'm going to

get to that later. Think about it. Hell itself

is truth discovered too late. It was just too

late

once you're there. It's impossible for me to

go too far, too overboard, too over the top

when considering the terror factor of hell. It

's the most frightening reality that there is.

It's overwhelming to think about, isn't it?

That's why the majority of modern-day

preaching

in the church stays away from this topic and

believe me, I get it.

I don't like to preach about it either. I find

sometimes preachers will have an insensitivity

about it. But unbelievers go into hell and you

better stop and think about this.

It's overwhelming and we don't like to think

about it, really, but we have to. We must.

The reason why we must is that it's one of

only two destinations that exist for all human

beings

after death and it lasts forever. It's just

staggering. I cannot wrap the totality of my

mind

around hell. I can't. But I can understand

something of what it is from the Bible.

Part of what hell is is suffering for sin,

righteous wrath being endured.

But hell is also resentment. There will be a

lot of resentment there. It's also

unrelieved bitterness under the eternal wrath

of God.

It's also eternal regret forever with no

remedy. It's everlasting remorse

without any hope. Consider what Jesus is

saying here. "You will seek me, but you will

not find me."

Hell is not where Christ is forgotten. Hell is

where Christ is unavailable.

Jesus also says in verse 34, "Look at it, and

where I am, you cannot come."

That means you're shut out of heaven forever.

It's so sad that the most common conception in

our land is this, and you know this, we've

gone

over it many times. The most common conception

in our land is, hey, God is good and everybody

that's

good is going to heaven. The prevailing belief

in our land is that just because you went

through

life on earth, everybody that's good graduates

to heaven when they die. Most people reason,

hey, I'm not perfect, but I'm basically good.

I'm going to heaven. They even make up jokes.

I've heard them at funerals. Grandpa's up

there doing the best fishing he's ever done.

A golfing or whatever they enjoyed on earth

somehow being done to its absolute fullest in

the

afterlife. You also hear this. Well, I mean,

if anybody is going to heaven, it has to be

momo-mortal. She was so kind. She was so

generous. She was such a loving person. She

gave of herself.

I never heard her raise her voice. She never

got angry. She loved all her children and

grandchildren,

and it's always based on how good they were

like that according to man's standard.

Whether or not she surrendered to the Lord

Jesus Christ and saving faith doesn't matter.

She was

good. Surely she's going to be in heaven if

anybody is. Or

you see somebody, look at how much they've

suffered. I mean, they've been in the hospital

for years,

years with pain and cancer. Surely because of

all of this years of suffering,

surely God is good and they are gone through

all this stuff, and surely they'll be in

heaven.

Look how much tragedy they endured in life. Or

another one. I heard this at funerals.

Oh, heaven gained another angel. No heaven did

not ever gain another angel. All the angels

have

already been created and are fixed in number.

We don't turn into angels when we go to heaven

.

There's angels and there's human beings, so

there's no new angels in heaven. That's

nonsense.

And so many people think like this, and that's

why it's hard to imagine a more clear

and devastating statement than what Jesus is

saying right here in our text, "You will seek

me

and you will not find me." And where I am, you

cannot come. Fox News Alert.

Heaven is not for everybody. That's what he's

saying.

This Vodibachem says, "Hey, I didn't write

this mail. I'm just delivering the mail.

I'm just the postman." Folks, this is a

warning passage right here.

And I just want you to mark in your mind as we

go through this text that this statement is

made

to two groups. It's made to the people in

general, and it's made to the leaders, and

they are different

characteristically. The people look at Jesus

from one perspective, and the leaders

are looking at Jesus from another perspective,

but both are given the same sentence.

The common people and the rulers. And guess

what? It doesn't matter,

because there is no class separating the

condemned. There's a hierarchy

in condemnation, eternal judgment.

Eternal judgment will fall on the people who

are confused about Jesus

in the same way that it will fall on people

who hate Jesus right now.

Now, there's different degrees of suffering

and hell. We've been through that. I don't

have time

to take you through all of that. It's another,

so you've got a question about that. Ask me

afterwards.

But the point is this, whether you're an

outright rejecter or whether you're a person

who's just kind

of not sure about Jesus, the same warning is

given. And so, we're going to break this

passage

down into these three points. The people's

confusion, the ruler's rejection, and the

Savior's

exclusion. Those will be the three points as

we walk our way through these verses. And

there's

no mistaking the attitude of the people here.

They're confused. Verse 25 introduces us to

their

confusion. And it's very important for you to

take note in verse 25. Look at it again.

So, some, you see that? Of the people of

Jerusalem were saying, "Is this not the man

whom they are

seeking to kill?" Some of the people are

saying that. Now, if you compare that with

just a few

verses earlier where Jesus says, look at verse

19, "Did not Moses give you the law, and yet

none

of you carries out the law? Why do you seek to

kill me?" Verse 20, the crowd answered, "You

have

a demon. Who seeks to kill you?" So, how can

they say in verse 20, "Who seeks to kill you?"

And then,

in verse 25, "Is not this the man whom they

are seeking to kill?" And the answer is, the

distinguishing

mark is, the people of Jerusalem, we're

talking about here, who are well acquainted in

Jerusalem

with the Jewish leaders. They live in

Jerusalem every day. That's who we're talking

about here.

Everybody in Jerusalem, at that point in Jesus

's life and ministry, knew the attitude of the

Jewish

leaders toward Jesus. The residents of

Jerusalem knew very well that the leaders

wanted Jesus dead.

But the people that were there, as I told you

in the beginning, who were there from out of

town,

all the areas and villages outside of

Jerusalem, they didn't have this knowledge,

like the residents did. And so, that is why

John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit

,

is very careful to say, look at verse 25 again

, "Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying,

is this not the man whom they are seeking to

kill?" And they, the hometown folk, are

confused.

Because here's Jesus. He shows up in the

middle of the week.

This is the guy they want dead, and here he is

in the temple teaching.

They know the leaders want him dead, but they

're letting him teach. And look at this. Nobody

's

stopping him. They know how the rulers feel,

and they are confused. Why don't they stop

Jesus?

Why? Why don't they just tease him right now

and execute him if that's what they want?

I mean, it's from a human's perspective. It's

their space. It's their

temple. They're in charge. But look at verse

26. It starts out with them saying, "Look,

he is speaking publicly, and they are saying

nothing to him."

And we know what he was teaching every time,

all about the kingdom, salvation, sin,

judgment,

righteousness, forgiveness, mercy, grace, and

identifying who he is on a regular basis, the

Son of God. Come down from heaven, right? And

here's the Jewish leaders just letting him go

on with it.

They consider his claims of deity, as you know

, and we've seen this already, absolute blasph

emy.

Why don't they stop him? And then next in

verse 26, look, the thought comes to them.

The rulers do not really know that this is the

Christ. Do they? Now, the construction of the

wording here from the original Greek can throw

you off base. What they are really asking,

literally,

in the Greek is this. They haven't decided

that he's the Messiah, have they? That's more

the rendering.

I mean, again, I never feel like I can convey

this enough or strongly enough. Think about

the things they have seen Jesus do. The

miracles work. I've told you many times, it's

just impossible

to be faked. And with Jesus being allowed to

teach, they start to think, I mean, okay, well

, here he

is. We've seen all these miracles. Have the

rulers started to decide that maybe he is the

Messiah?

Is that why they're letting him teach? But

that thought goes away pretty fast, because

look next

in verse 27. However, we know where this man

is from. In other words, this can't be the

Messiah.

We know his history. He's the son of the carp

enter named Joseph and his wife, Mary, and of

all places

they come from, Nazareth. No Messiah coming

out of that place. This can't be the Messiah.

We know him.

We know his family. We know his hometown. You

know what this really was?

This thought here was one of the safe zones

that they had in rejecting Jesus. No matter

what he offered,

in order to receive the offer that Jesus was

giving, you had to accept the indictment that

he

made about you. They hated the indictment. Let

me give you an example. In his own hometown,

when he told him that they were going to have

to recognize themselves as poor prisoners,

blind,

and oppressed, and headed for judgment, and if

they didn't do that, they'd never be saved.

What did they try to do in his own hometown?

They tried to throw him off a cliff and kill

him.

They hated the indictment that he made about

their sinfulness.

He taught that that day in Nazareth. You can

read about that in Matthew 13.

You remember they said, "Where did he get this

wisdom and miraculous powers and isn't this

the

carpenter's son and his mother, Mary's

brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, Judas?" You

see what it was?

It was the same default response here that it

was in Nazareth.

And as they took offense at Jesus, Jesus gave

that memorable line, and you remember it,

"A prophet is not without honor except in his

own country."

Many a preacher has experienced that in his

own family.

They love to fall back on the fact that he can

't be the Messiah because we know where he came

from.

We saw the same thing back in chapter 6 of

John is not Jesus the son of Joseph,

who father and mother we know. Remember that?

If you look down at verse 41 of this seventh

chapter, let's look at verse 41 through 43.

Still others were saying, "This is the Christ

."

Still others were saying, "Surely the Christ

is not going to come from Galilee." Is he?

"Has not the Scripture said that Christ comes

from the descendants of David and from Bethleh

em,

the village where David was?" And verse 43, "

So a division occurred in the crowd because of

him."

So this is their confusion. Some thought it

had to be Bethlehem, and they were right.

That's Micah 5-2 from the Old Testament. And

guess what they could have done? They could

have

checked the records at the temple. They could

have seen that he actually had been born in

Bethlehem,

and they could even check his genealogy at

that point to see that he was definitely in

the Davidic

line, and actually he was in the Davidic line

on both sides of the family from both Mary and

Joseph.

They could have checked that, but they didn't

check it. All they were looking for was

justification

for their rejection of him. You know why?

Because he didn't fit their messianic pattern.

And then we get an interesting statement at

the back end of verse 27. They say first,

first they say, "However, we know where this

man is from." And then they say this,

"But whenever the Christ may come, no one

knows where he is from." Well, wait a minute.

What about Bethlehem? Well, this is a popular

notion at this time period in Jewish history.

It had developed in Judaism that the Messiah

was actually going to have some kind of really

grand entrance into the world. And what it was

was they misinterpreted some passages in Micah

and Isaiah that say he would suddenly come to

his temple and who shall declare his

generation,

in other words, who would know anything about

his family is how they would interpret that.

And so those misinterpretations resulted in

this notion that Messiah was going to have

some kind

of supernatural deal at his arrival in the

temple. And at the same time, they wouldn't

know it would

just be so sudden and so miraculous they

wouldn't know anything about his family.

People had started

to believe this. And so with Jesus, they

reason, "Well, this can't be him. We know his

family.

We know he came from Nazareth." Now, the

Jewish leaders could have helped the people.

They knew Messiah was supposed to be born in

Bethlehem. The chief's priests and the scribes

said as much back in Matthew chapter 2 to hear

it. The records show that Jesus had come from

Bethlehem and the temple records showed that

he was born, as I said, to two Davidic

families.

The leaders knew he perfectly fit the Messiah

's credentials, but they conveniently did not

want

to help the people with their dilemma. So the

people were in confusion. The leaders are not

about at this point to set the record straight

that Messiah comes from Bethlehem, and they're

never

going to say, "Hey, we checked the records, we

checked the genealogy, and Jesus fits the bill

all the way down the line." They're never

going to say that. Instead, they're just

going to leave the people in confusion. And so

again, the people reason, if he's not the

Messiah,

why aren't they arresting him? And at this

point, next, verse 28, it gets real dramatic.

Verse 28 starts out, "Then Jesus cried out in

the temple." This is why expository preaching

is so important. You have to understand that

phrase cried out in the Greek. That phrase

means he is

yelling at the top of his voice, what he's

fixing to say yet, as loud as he, he did this

four times

in the New Testament, yelled at the top of his

voice. It's a very strong word for yelling.

There's

only one that is stronger and Jesus used it

only one time, a stronger crying out even than

this on

the cross as he gave up his life. Incredibly,

he had enough strength to cry out on the cross

,

even louder than he did in the temple this day

, because as he said, "No man takes his life

from

him," but he gave it up by himself. So here

though, in verse 28, "Jesus," imagine this

picture,

he's in the courtyard, it's packed with people

, packed with Jewish religious leaders, the

courtyard

of the Gentiles, and he yells at the top of

his voice in the middle of all these people

and the Pharisees and all of the scribes and

all those there. It says teaching and saying,

"You both know me and know where I'm from, and

I have not come of myself, but he who sent me

is

true, whom you do not know," to the top of his

lungs. Imagine that, imagine that scene.

And what Jesus is really getting at here is,

yeah, you know me and you know where I'm from.

That's what you think, but you really don't

know me.

You don't really know who's standing in front

of you right now in this temple courtyard.

The very idea that in your confusion and unbel

ief that you really know me is ridiculous.

You don't know where I'm from and you don't

know who sent me.

Later at the end of John chapter 8, verse 19,

he says to them, "You know neither me nor my

father."

You don't know anything really about me. Yeah,

oh yeah, you know that I'm from a family in

Nazareth.

You know I'm from Galilee. You may know about

my public deeds and my miracles. You may have

heard my words, but you really have no idea

who I really am. And you have no idea who sent

me.

And you have no knowledge of the one that you

claim to know.

Remember later in John 8, he says, "Why do you

not understand what I am saying? It's because

you

can't hear my word. You can't understand that

you are of your father the devil." He told

them

right to their face. Now listen, knowing some

details and some external things about Jesus

is really to know nothing about really knowing

him. Okay? To know some of his history,

to know his stories, to have this kind of CNN

finding Jesus kind of knowledge about Jesus

means

you're still needing to look for him because

you don't really know him. Not in the way that

counts

forever. So Jesus is saying here in verse 28,

"You don't know anything about God." For this

whole

crowd, religious leaders and people, what an

indictment of Israel. He's standing in the

midst

of a people destroyed for a lack of knowledge,

just like here in America. The vast majority

of Americans can right now tell you stories

about Jesus and they could be right about them

.

Bibles saturate this nation. Churches are

everywhere. Sometimes I'm in 12 different

towns in one day on Thursdays when I deliver.

Every single town I ever go into has churches,

more than one. It's not an exaggeration to say

that the vast majority of Americans do not

know Jesus savingly.

Jesus says, "You don't know me and you don't

know the one who sent me." And then in verse

29,

he says, "I know him because I am from him and

he sent me." And as you know,

the people prided themselves on being the

people of God who knew God and here's Jesus in

the temple,

teaching, saying, "You don't know God." Do you

realize just from the human perspective down

here

in Responsibility Land how bold it is of Jesus

to do this in the middle of this crowd of

lifelong

Jewish people and even leaders? What a man was

the God man when he was here.

He made it clear to them back in chapter 5, "

If you don't honor me, you don't honor the

Father."

Deity alert! Just as an aside, that means I'm

God.

These people are confused about who Jesus is

just like the majority of our nation is.

They say they know Jesus, but they don't. They

don't know the Father who sent him.

And that's a frightening position folks to be

in because there will come a time

when they will seek to know him and he will

not be available and they will be shut out of

heaven

forever. Confusion is not the place to be when

it comes to Jesus. And that's where the people

are

here in this text. And next we go from these

people's confusion to the ruler's rejection,

point two. They see nothing but blasphemy in

Jesus and they now know that the people are

expecting

them to act. They know that we can't let him

keep doing this. And remember there are many

in the

crowd who said you have a demon. Remember we

looked at that and they wanted the leaders to

act. So

they need to act before Jesus has some kind of

positive effect here in verse 30. So they were

seeking to seize him and no man laid a hand on

him. They tried to do that back in chapter

five if

you remember. They wanted to do it at the

start of this chapter. There's a bunch of

people in this

crowd that want the leaders to do something,

but no man lays a hand on him. Nobody touches

him.

Now why would that be the case? Well, look at

it two ways. If you try to look at it from

just a

human perspective, you could understand. This

is like nobody we ever met. This dude got some

power.

I mean, think about, we watched him have

supernatural powers over the demons. I mean,

that means he probably has pretty supernatural

power over us. He also had supernatural power

over

all disease. I mean, there had to be a measure

of fear, right? And also because of the way he

operated. Also because of the way he spoke. I

mean, just think about it folks. Whenever

Jesus

rolled up on any situation, there just

instantly had to be an overwhelming, no matter

even you

thought he was a blasphemer, he commanded

respect because he's God in human flesh.

And just his countenance, much less the things

that he said. And so those things may give us

some human explanations, but we don't get that

in the Bible. We only get the divine

explanation.

The reason no man laid hands on him to arrest

him is next in verse 30, because his hour had

not yet

come. Big picture. They were restrained by the

sovereign, invisible hand of God. And again,

I refer you, if you're struggling with

sovereignty and responsibility, Jesus knew

this.

He knew this wasn't the weekend, but yet he

was very careful about coming down in the

middle

of the week and didn't go with the family

sovereignty and responsibility right there.

But I already preached that. They couldn't act

, folks, big picture because they were under

the

divine control of God himself. And God himself

was working through their willing choices, but

make

no mistake from the sovereign perspective, he

was controlling everything just like he does

everything else in the universe every single

day. Redemptive history is planned by God

and executed by God. And it all happens

according to his purpose and his divine

timetable, just like the day you and I came to

faith in Jesus Christ.

Think of it. We've read it already multiple

times. They were determined to kill him. He's

in the

temple. The people are right now in real time

being persuaded by him and yet

by invisible restraint from above. They can't

even move forward. They can't even lean their

head

toward it. Not a hair of his head could be

touched at this point because God was not yet

ready for

that to happen. So they are paralyzed. Next,

the stakes start to get a little higher. Look

at verse

31. But many of the crowd believed in him and

they were saying when the Christ comes, he

will not

perform more signs than those which this man

has, will he? Looks like many in the crowd are

starting

to lean a certain direction. In the midst of

their confusion, they start to think about,

wait a minute, maybe he is the Messiah. I mean

, after all, will anybody ever do more

miracles than this guy has done that we've

watched over the last three years? And in

reality, they had never known anybody that had

done any miracles ever.

So they are believing, but what kind of belief

is it? Well, I think it's probably a mixed bag

in

that big old crowd. I think there were those

who believed because of the miracles, like the

ones

we studied in chapter 2, like the disciples

who followed for a little bit of a time and

then

eventually they left. And then I think there

were some in this crowd who genuinely believed

, not many.

But the leaders, of course, just like us today

, can only see belief from the outside and they

get very concerned because many in the crowd

are starting to buy in the fact

that he might actually be the Messiah. Think

about all those miracles we saw, verse 32.

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these

things about him. In our language,

this thing is starting to get trending in the

crowd. And for these Pharisees, they're

realizing,

hey, this thing can get out of control quick

if this belief continues to grow. So it says,

next in verse 32, "And the chief priests and

the Pharisees sent officers to seize him."

The temple police are dispatched. Go arrest

him. And you remember last time we looked at

what

happened. We looked ahead. The temple police

came back, no Jesus. And when they said, what

is y'all's

deal? Why didn't you arrest him and bring him

back? What did they say? No man speaks the way

this

man speaks. And we're going to get to that

next time we're here in John the Lord willing.

But verse

33, Jesus speaks. Now, you can't know this for

sure. Might have been to everybody. Might have

been to the temple police. Might have been to

just the leaders. I can't know this for sure.

It seems to me in the context here that this

is the people in general

and the rulers based on what is said in verse

35 about the Jews responding. But let's just

stay

here in verse 33. "Therefore, Jesus said, for

a little while longer I am with you. Then I go

to

him who sent me." Now, think about that. There

's a certain sadness, isn't there, in that

statement.

Considering who Jesus really is, the creator

of the universe, standing right in front of me

,

he's saying, "Hey, it's not going to be long.

I'm going to be gone. I came here on a divine

mission

from heaven to die for sinners and soon I'm

going to be out of here. I'm going to be out

of your

lives. Soon you're not going to have to worry

about dealing with me at all." So this takes

us

from the people's confusion to the leader's

rejection in our last point of the day, the

Savior's

exclusion. He says, "I'm not going to be here

long." There's a certain loneliness in that,

isn't there, sorrow. And here's the reality.

There's only six months left at this point

that the world will have God incarnate in it,

God in human flesh, the Son of God walking in

the

world and loving a world that hates his guts,

loving a nation that hates his guts, his own

people.

He's just months away from returning to the

one who sent him, he says. And what is truly

sad,

verse 34 again, where he says, "You will seek

me and will not find me and where I am you

cannot come."

40 years later from recorded history, the

Romans came and sacked Jerusalem, an

unbelievable massacre.

When Brother John Green was here, he took us

through on Sunday nights, this great history.

He

did all this research from Josephus about the

unbelievable, horrible slaughter. Josephus

estimates a million, definitely in the

hundreds of thousands of Jews that starved to

death and

were slaughtered and killed in the siege and

the raising of Jerusalem. Makes you wonder

if the people who heard what Jesus said that

very day and were still alive in that

generation when

the Romans came thought about seeking him, but

no longer being able to find him as the Romans

were

slaughtering him because he's gone. He told

them, "I'm not going to be here long. I'm

going to be gone.

You're not going to be able to find me." The

miracle worker was gone, just like he said.

And then, as I said, this is certainly true

after death.

That's part of what hell is,

seeking what you will never find forever.

Again, lastly, verse 34, "And where I am going

,

you cannot come." And what he means is, "I'm

going to the Father. I came down from heaven.

I'm going back to heaven. You will never go to

heaven. You reject me. You call me a blasph

emer."

Heaven is not for everybody. It's only for

those who come to Jesus Christ on his terms

according

to his definition of what saving faith is. And

then here's proof of the unbelief. The Jews

just

mock him. Look, verse 35, "The Jews then said

to one another, 'Where does this man intend to

go

that we will not find him?'" He is not int

ending to go to the dispersion among the Greeks

and teach

the Greeks, is he? This is a joke. He's not

going to leave and go out and talk to the Jews

dispersed

out there in the Gentile world and maybe even

talk to Gentiles, is he? God forbid, what an

absolute

horror that he might talk to a Gentile that he

mocked with scorn the Son of God standing

right

in front of him. And it's all based on

ignorance and willful, willful rejection. As I

've said before,

think about this. Can you imagine being one of

the Jewish leaders who lived at that time,

who publicly treated God incarnate this way

when he was here and then having to live the

rest of

eternity out knowing you did that in your life

forever in hell? They're thinking about it

right now.

And it seems what he said in verse 33 must

have gotten to them because, look, again,

I was pointing this out in the beginning, look

at verse 36, what is this statement that he

said,

'You will seek me and you will not find me for

where I am. You cannot come.' They done

mentioned it

twice now. So it's heavy on their mind. That

statement applies to both the confused and the

rejection because at the end of the day, as I

said, there's no difference at the end of the

day.

Whether you reject Christ out of confusion or

you reject Christ out of your hatred for him,

the end game is the same. This is a warning

right here. Not only for those people of this

day,

but for the rest of the world. And it's

written down in a book for all the people for

the rest

of history to read. What was said that day,

what went down that day is a matter of

absolute history.

And we've been reading about it ever since.

Don't you know, for most Americans who die,

Americans rejecting Christ, having lived out

their life in the most gospel-saturated nation

in the history of humanity, don't you know

that Jesus is on their mind from the first

moment they go into outer darkness? That's the

first thing they think about. I rejected him.

He gave me this life to believe in him and I

rejected him. And they never stopped thinking

about

mind-boggling thought. That's why this same

book right here says, "Seek the Lord

while he may be found." That's what you need

to tell people. Let's pray. Father, we thank

you

for your word-overwhelming task to preach the

very words and actions of Jesus when

he was here. But what glory there is in it. I

certainly don't deserve such a wonderful

privilege

to be able to preach the very words of Jesus,

but you have to have a preacher. So thank you,

Lord, for allowing me to preach this message.

It is such a weighty, weighty, weighty matter.

Please help this message to not only deepen

our understanding of who Christ is,

but also to give us the courage to tell the

story of Jesus and his gospel to those who so

desperately need to hear it. We pray that all

that we've done in this church, your church

today,

has brought you maximum glory. In Jesus' name

we pray. Amen.