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.