Expectations

[0:00] Kind of out of sorts.

[0:13] Yes, oh, the clicker, yeah. That's what I mean, I'm out of sorts. Where's the, where's all the kids?

[0:28] I told my kids, I said, okay. You guys staying home, but you gotta watch John Piper. So they're watching a John Piper sermon. I watched a John Piper sermon last Sunday.

[0:39] I listened to Daniel's message, both Daniel's and Roy's, great messages, especially Daniel's was wonderful. And then, but last week, I watched John Piper, and I encourage you, watch that.

[0:50] It's from the Gospel Coalition for Women, a women's conference, it was August 7th. You should look up messages. It's from Exodus 17. John Piper, I encourage you to watch that.

[1:02] It's a wonderful message from John Piper. It was an encouragement to me. I'm sure it'll be an encouragement to you. So, excuse me for my voice. The cold's getting better for us.

[1:13] Just have a cough, but it's resonating in my throat, and the more I use it, the worse it will be. But thank you for being gracious. And I appreciated Roy coming.

[1:24] I texted him, thank you for coming. Text Daniel, thanks for coming. I appreciated those guys coming and preaching for me. That was great. And we weren't sick on vacation. We just, it was that day we were coming back. This is when it started.

[1:35] Two kids went down, and then Friday, the others went down, then Saturday I went down, and then mom's doing great. She's like super mom and super wife.

[1:50] I'm loser dad. Anyway, so, go to John chapter 7. I'm gonna preach through John 7. This is finishing up this section here in John 7. John chapter 7, or in that Bible, in the chair in front of you, page 78 in the back.

[2:04] The New Testament's renumbered page 78 in that black Bible. John chapter 7, 40 through 52. That's what we're gonna study this morning. 40 through 52.

[2:16] John 7, 40 through 52. And if I, things aren't clicking, just understand, oh, this is because he's been sick. So that's probably why. So if I say something, I'm just like, what did he just say?

[2:29] He's not feeling well. So just chalk it up to that. So let me read 7, 40 through 52, and then we'll dive in and see what God has to say to us from his word.

[2:41] Therefore of the multitude, hearing these words, were saying, this is truly the prophet. Others were saying, this is the Christ.

[2:52] Still others were saying, is the Christ going to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was, the Christ comes?

[3:07] Therefore, a division came among the multitude because of him, and some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. Verse 45. Therefore, the temple police came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and these said to the temple police, why did you not bring him?

[3:28] The officers answered, a man has never spoken in this way. The Pharisees therefore answered them, have you also been deceived?

[3:38] Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd which does not know the law is accursed. Nicodemus said to them, the one who came to him before, being one of them, does our law judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he's doing?

[4:01] And they answered and said to him, you are also from Galilee. I see, search and see, that out of Galilee, a prophet does not come.

[4:19] It's said that the source of an angry response, or even sadness, stems from expectations.

[4:31] We have specific expectations. When those particular expectations are not met, we get mad.

[4:43] We may respond in anger, or sadness, depression. And if somebody tells you, I don't have any expectations, they're either lying to you, or they're ignorant.

[4:55] You either don't know, or you don't care. I mean, there's no other way. I mean, we all have expectations. If somebody says, I don't have expectations, they're ignorant. Now, yes, they do. Or they're not telling you the truth.

[5:07] Because we all have expectations. Here's an example. When I'm driving, hey, you quiet down. Oh, before we get into this, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Lord, happy birthday to you.

[5:32] That's on the recording now, too. Oh, everybody knows you turn 90, I mean, 80. So, back to, here's an example.

[5:45] When I'm driving, I expect people to drive sane, orderly, and speedily, like me. And if, if she or he doesn't drive like that, of course, I get mad.

[6:01] Or, this is how one comedian put it. Anybody driving slower than you is an idiot. Anyone driving faster than you is a maniac. Exactly. I can identify with that statement.

[6:12] I can identify with that statement. We have expectations. When we give people the gospel, we need to be ready for certain reactions.

[6:27] We need to have specific expectations. We should expect certain responses to Jesus. And, we've already looked at one of them, or Jesus pointed out to us one of them, in chapter six.

[6:44] Jesus says, no one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I'll raise him up on the last day. So, one expectation is, when the Father draws someone to Christ, they'll believe.

[7:00] And here, in verses 40 through 52, there's, majority of them, are negative responses. So, I'm trying to think, you know, what, how do you, how do you phrase this, from John's gospel, who's calling us to, come believe in Jesus, trust Jesus, know Jesus.

[7:18] And I thought, here's a good way to put it. Expectations. Expectations. Be aware, and expect, different reactions to Jesus, when you give people the gospel.

[7:34] When presented with the truth of Jesus, people respond, or react to Jesus, in at least three different ways. Expect it. Don't be surprised by that. I'm gonna say this later, but I'll give you a tidbit now.

[7:48] If Jesus dealt with this himself, being physically here, what makes you think, it's gonna be any better for you? No. And remember, it comes on the heels of chapter six.

[8:04] Heels of chapter six is, when the Father draws someone, when the Spirit gives life, that person will believe. So when you come to this, part in chapter seven, you're, you're, you're seeing, I, I don't know if, I don't know if the Father's drawing these people.

[8:22] You'll see by their reactions, by their responses, to Jesus. But going back, since it's been a few weeks, going back through chapter seven, just a recap.

[8:35] Chapter seven, in the beginning, we saw how we are children of the Father. Christ is our brother. Capital B. The Spirit indwells us. Recognize who Jesus is, and what he fulfills, and make the right judgment.

[8:49] Trust Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath. The Feast of Tabernacles, circumcision. Circumcision. He fulfills those, Old Testament promises.

[9:01] He's our satisfying provision, and the provider of that provision. So that's chapter seven, verses one through 39, and then here, the focus centers on reactions to Jesus' identity and mission.

[9:20] Responses. And both of these, his identity and mission, these groups were ignorant, except for one, which you'll see. They thought they knew Jesus and his mission, but they were far from it.

[9:32] It just showed their lack of knowledge. And Jesus, from everything that happened, was now more than ever in danger with their religious leaders and their established religiosity.

[9:50] And this section, it ends with a huge twist, leaving a wake full of ironies to the point where we as readers, and I'll point this out to you, we as readers, we're gonna kind of, kind of chuckle to ourselves because we'll be like, oh yeah, because we really know what's happening.

[10:16] And this presents to us, though, a challenge that all of Jesus' followers will experience. See, there's a challenge here between God and the world.

[10:27] When we present the truth of Jesus to the world, these are the responses we'll get apart from the Father's drawing work.

[10:41] But don't underestimate God. Maybe he's not gonna draw them then. Maybe he's drawing them then. Who knows? You just don't know. And it's not necessarily our place to make sure people have different responses.

[10:58] We just need to expect it. Don't be surprised. Okay, so, what do you do with this info about Jesus' identity and mission? Let this message warn you of people's responses, but also, let it motivate you to speak to them the gospel.

[11:18] Let it motivate you to tell people about Jesus' identity and mission, who he is, and what he's done. He's God in the flesh who died for sinners and rose.

[11:29] Repent and believe. That's the gospel. Okay, so, how will people respond to Jesus? Expect these responses.

[11:39] I got three. Actually, the first one has, like, three different responses, but I put it in one category. Number one, people can be fickle or fickleness, if you want to put it right now.

[11:53] Fickle. And that's from the crowd, the multitude, and even some of the peeps of Jerusalem. Verses 40 through 52. And as I said just a few moments ago, there's actually, in this one category, fickleness, there's three different responses you see from Jesus.

[12:11] Look at how it begins in verse 40. Therefore, the multitude, hearing these words, were saying, here's the first one. This is truly the prophet. This one truly is the prophet.

[12:25] Convinced probably because of Jesus' words. Maybe because of the sign of feeding the thousands of people from chapter six. Because it resembled what Moses spoke about by giving manna, by giving manna to the people.

[12:39] Sort of like, oh, this has to be the prophet that Moses spoke about. In verse 41, others are saying, this is the Christ.

[12:51] This is the Messiah. Clearly, there's a differentiation between the prophet, as far as they're concerned, protected by Moses and the Christ. Messiah because of the signs he performed.

[13:04] And maybe these were the peeps from Jerusalem because they thought that way from verse 27 of chapter seven. But now, don't let this cloud your thinking.

[13:16] Because when they say, oh, he's a Messiah, keep in mind, he was not the Christ, excuse me, he was the Christ not to the point of making him the object of their worship.

[13:28] He was the Christ not to the point of making him the object of their worship. No, no, no. He's the kind of Messiah to get us out of this mess with the Romans. How people thought that day that Messiah was going to be a political puppet for their own political gain.

[13:48] When they say, oh, he's the Messiah, these people are like, oh, he's going to do us good politically. Third reaction, notice, verse 41, the next word, verse 41 to verse 42.

[14:02] Sillow's were saying, Christ is not going to come from Galilee. That's like a negative, that's like a negative answer. He doesn't come from Galilee. This disqualify him to be the Messiah.

[14:14] Plus, and they quoted scripture, Messiah's of David's seed. He's born in Bethlehem. He's not born from there. Come on. And there's the irony.

[14:27] Jesus was from the line of David. And he was born in Bethlehem. But even more so, what did we read from John's gospel, John chapter three?

[14:38] He's from above. So that's where we as the readers were chuckling to ourselves. We're like, oh, you're so ignorant. You just don't know, do you? You think you do.

[14:51] And that's why verse 43, a division came among the multitude because of Jesus. The mixed reaction. Prophet, Christ, fraud.

[15:04] And it was those who thought him to be a fraud. They tried to seize him. Notice verse 44, and some of them wanted to seize him. But, nope. No one laid hands on him because, remember verse 30, his hour had not yet come.

[15:18] He was gonna go to the cross. He was gonna go to the cross according to the Father's plan. That was his mission. He was gonna die for sinners. That was the Father's plan for him. But not when people wanted him to die when the Father wanted him to die.

[15:32] So, these present to us natural reactions to Jesus' person and work stripped away from the Father drawing a person by the Spirit.

[15:50] Man-made religiosity, it causes, as one writer puts, dark-filled chaos, superstition, God confusion, and just not seeing Jesus as the object of their faith.

[16:03] He's something else. He gets me stuff. He's just a good prophet. He's just a good man.

[16:15] Or, no way, no thanks. See, these are different reactions that you should expect people to respond to you when you give them the gospel.

[16:29] As John said in his gospel, chapter 1, verse 10 and 11, the world does not recognize him. He came to his own, but they did not receive him.

[16:42] Apart from God's Spirit drawing a person to Christ, these will be the different reactions to Jesus. And I said this earlier, if Jesus' very presence gave rise to these responses, what makes us think it'll be better for us?

[17:03] Don't expect it's gonna be better for you. That's how people are gonna respond, and you should expect that. That's why we must trust the Father to draw people.

[17:16] That's why we must trust and pray, Father, only you can draw them. Only you can do that. I can't make people believe in the gospel.

[17:27] You can't make people believe in the gospel. They'll think of him as just a good prophet, like in Islam. They'll think, he gets me stuff, like Joel Osteen.

[17:44] They'll think, no way, no thanks. so fickle. And here's the second one. Hostile.

[17:57] Some responses are gonna be fickle. Fickleness. But here, it's hostility. And you see that from the religious leaders. And it starts in verse 45, and we're gonna, we're gonna see the correlation, or the conversation a little bit between the religious leaders and the temple police, and then the religious leaders and Nicodemus.

[18:18] But I'm gonna focus in on the religious leaders, their responses, and then we'll look at the temple police and Nicodemus, okay? Nick. Remember Nick from chapter three?

[18:31] So notice, verse 45. The temple police, therefore, they came to the chief priests and Pharisees. Now stop there. Go back to verse 32 of John chapter seven.

[18:43] Verse 32. The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers, or temple police, to seize him.

[18:55] So this goes, takes us back to verse 32. These are the same guys, okay? They came back to the chief priests and Pharisees. Where's Jesus?

[19:08] When did you bring him? What are you doing? And we'll look at their response. We'll find out. But their action, or lack of action, it ticked off the religious leaders.

[19:24] Good reminder, these leaders are not in control of Jesus' destiny. So you have the temple police, their reaction. We'll look at that later. Notice the Pharisees, rulers, verse 47.

[19:38] They answered them, have you also been deceived? Why? They do a really good job of shaming people, don't they?

[19:50] Shaming these temple police. Putting them in the same category, you'll see in just a moment, with this stupid crowd. This man is a fraud, he's a deceiver, and you're listening to this.

[20:04] Look at verse 48. Have any of the foolish Pharisees believed in him? Expecting a negative answer to this question. You don't see any of us believe in this clown, do you? See the hostility.

[20:18] And they said this to support their rebuke for their lack of action. Oh, exactly. Yeah, yeah. You think that's a good thing that you don't believe in him? You see, we're kind of chuckling to ourselves.

[20:29] Really? This is not such a good thing. No, we're the real thinkers here, say the religious leaders. But you've been duped by this imposter. Really?

[20:41] One writer says this, quote, their boasting has duped them. Again, we as the readers were softly chuckling to ourselves. They had no idea.

[20:53] Look at verse 49. They threw the temple police under the bus. Now they're gonna throw the crowd under the bus. Look at verse 49.

[21:03] This crowd, which doesn't know the law, is accursed. Oh, that's nice. They rebuke the crowd, calling them really a bunch of idiots. Not only are you clowns incompetent employees, but you're just like this stupid crowd.

[21:19] They're incompetent Jews. Wow. They're accursed. I mean, they spoke condescendingly of the people.

[21:31] These people, they're ignorant, they're impious, they're idiots, they're fools. That's how the religious leaders viewed the people. The crowd is ignorant. They're so easily deceived.

[21:42] And we, the readers, we're chuckling in the background. Really? Who is ignorant, really? Who are the ones who really had no clue?

[21:55] Who really didn't understand Jesus' mission and Jesus' identity? It's you religious leaders and you should have known that because you know the scripture. And into verse 50, you see Nicodemus 50 and 51.

[22:12] He makes a response and we'll look at that in just a second, okay? But notice, again, the hostility that comes out from the religious leaders in verse 52. The answer that said to Nicodemus, you're also from Galilee?

[22:26] I mean, are you crazy? Now again, the question expected a negative answer because they knew he wasn't from Galilee. They mocked, though, his idea of listening to Jesus and really, they mocked Nicodemus.

[22:44] You're a total fool and idiot too, aren't you? I see what they're saying. They rebuked him first by insinuating that his words, you'll see in a moment, were favorable towards Jesus.

[22:58] It was a fraud as far as they were concerned. Second, I mean, they knew full will he wasn't from Galilee. They knew that. Which serves even more to be such a nasty scolding and a major put down.

[23:11] Were you all from Galilee? You know, they're just driving that home, aren't they? And notice the last part. Search and see. From Galilee comes no prophet.

[23:24] Search and see. This is not in the Scripture. Well, wait. Shouldn't we be looking at what is in the Scripture? What about Jonah? Jonah. Jonah was from Galilee.

[23:37] He's a prophet from Galilee. See, they could not see the facts laid right out in front of their faces. But their blindness went deeper.

[23:52] And to an unseen level, their hard-heartedness was evidently blatant. They succeeded in showing just how ignorant and foolish they were of Jesus' true origins and identity.

[24:06] Look, when you're gonna give people the gospel, you may face somebody who's really hostile towards you. Just be ready for that.

[24:17] Expect that. Some people will be fickle. They'll be all over the map. They won't really, for lack of better terms, argue. But other people will be really hostile towards you. And in condemning others, they're actually condemning themselves.

[24:35] And that's the irony. These outsiders, which we're gonna look at in just a moment, and they knew better than the religious leaders. That's probably the saddest part of this whole thing.

[24:47] The religious leaders should have known better. They knew the scriptures. So you have fickle, hostile, and then this other one, I was trying to think, well, that would be a good way to put this one.

[25:02] How about logical? Or, I put spiritual, and I mean spiritual in the sense of, of the spirit. When somebody says to you, I'm spiritual, they're stealing our word. That word belongs to us because spiritual means it's of the spirit.

[25:15] That's what spiritual means. It's of the Holy Spirit. And it's logical or spiritual from these two groups, or one group and then one guy, is the temple police and Nicodemus.

[25:31] I mean, you wouldn't think, I mean, Nicodemus, remember him? Chapter 3? You wouldn't think that he would be the one saying anything, but he does. And then the temple police, who are these guys? They're nobodies.

[25:45] But look at what they say in verse 46, well, verse 45. Why didn't you bring him, verse 46, and this is a great way to translate it, a man has never spoken in this way. I like the legacy Bible.

[25:58] I read that last night, Dwayne, how they put it. It was a great way how they translated that, the legacy standard, LSB. They translated that really good. A man has never spoken in this way.

[26:10] They witnessed the total otherness of Jesus. And they stopped sort of arresting him because of his words. I mean, that phrase that you read in verse 46, it just drips with irony.

[26:28] They spoke better than they knew. And remember verse 32. So in verse 32, they were sent to arrest Jesus, to seize him.

[26:39] So they heard what Jesus said in verse 33 and 34 of chapter 7, and they heard what Jesus did and what he said in chapter 7, verse 37 and 38.

[26:51] Remember 37 and 38. The procession and the water and the pouring out of the water, the pouring out of the wine. They saw Jesus get up and say, if any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

[27:04] That's what they saw. That's what they heard. That's why they said, a man has never spoken this way. His words disoriented them.

[27:19] And how true it is, oh, he's never spoken this way. There you go. How true it is that God goes after the weak, the foolish, the ignorant, the despised, the nobodies.

[27:35] These were the nobodies. Kind of just a tidbit of info in John's gospel. And yet, they responded better than the others, than this whole crowd, than the religious leaders even.

[27:50] So the logical, the spiritual. First, you have the temple police. And you'll expect that.

[28:01] Expect that. Some people will just be like, wait, what? And you'll be engaging with them, talking with them. Maybe God's, maybe the Spirit's drawing them. You don't know.

[28:14] And then notice, you see that again with Nicodemus. Look at verse 50. Nicodemus said to them, the one who came to them before being one of them. Notice how John tells us precisely who Nicodemus was.

[28:27] Don't miss this, John's saying. It's the same guy from John 3. And remember who he was. Nicodemus, he's part of the Sanhedrin.

[28:39] An insider. A prestigious Jewish family of prestigious Jewish authority. Wealthy.

[28:52] He challenged Jesus in chapter 3. This same guy, what does he say? Verse 51. Does our Lord judge a man, unless at first hears from him and knows what he's doing?

[29:11] Question. And he was not just challenging the religious leaders for their lack of justice, but he presented himself in some regard on Jesus' side.

[29:28] And yet it's true, it would only be just to give Jesus a hearing and know what he's doing, which tells you what. Nic insinuated that you guys have no clue what Jesus is doing.

[29:40] That's what he's insinuating. And in some sense, he was rebuking them for not obeying the law themselves. They who just rebuked the crowd for their lack of knowing the law.

[29:56] Here's how one writer put it. The negligence displayed by the crowd, which gave the religious leaders war to curse them, is used by Nicodemus here, one of their own, to show that these religious leaders, you're doing the same negligence that's back on you.

[30:19] He used their argument against them in a calm, peaceful, rational, logical fashion. And if they could think clearly, they'd see it too.

[30:34] But their attitude was so out of step with the spirit of the law. So what was God doing in the hearts of this temple police?

[30:49] We don't know. What was he doing in Nicodemus' heart? We don't know. Although, we know the end of the story from Nicodemus, or at least some of it, he was the one who helped take Jesus down from the cross and bury him.

[31:02] We don't know. Here's responses that we see come to Jesus when they come face to face with his identity and mission.

[31:13] Well, what about your response? What's your response to Jesus? Do you know the Lord Jesus? Have you trusted in him? Don't be like these. Come to him and trust him and love him.

[31:27] Repent and trust Christ. He's God come flesh. who live the perfect life, died on behalf of sinners and rose from the dead. Repent and believe and you'll be saved.

[31:39] That's the gospel. God will save you. Respond that way. So again, here's this challenge. The challenge between God and the world.

[31:53] And when we give the truth of Jesus to the world, these that are responsible, get. apart from God's, the Father's drawing work to them.

[32:04] So don't underestimate what God's gonna do. I mean, people might respond with hostility but you don't know. But just expect it. Don't be surprised. Be aware and expect different reactions to Jesus when you give people the gospel.

[32:20] When presented with the truth of Jesus, people respond or react to Jesus in at least three different ways. Fickle, hostile, or logical. Maybe God's doing a work in them. We don't know. Expect it.

[32:32] Let this message warn you of people's responses and motivate you to give them the truth because it's not up to you to make them respond a certain way. It's not up to us.

[32:44] We trust God and what He's gonna do. We trust the Father to do His work of drawing them. We just need to faithfully give them the gospel. Let's pray. That's what we pray, Father.

[32:57] We have family members and friends, family members, relatives, neighbors, co-workers who don't know you.

[33:15] Help us to give a defense of the faith with gentleness, with grace, help us help us to respond with kindness and yet to present the truth and not to be surprised when we face these different responses.

[33:40] Give us your grace to trust you in that. God's grace and I want to encourage you and we do this each time after a message for you to sit and ponder and think what we've seen from God's Word.

[34:01] I want to encourage you maybe there's one, two, three people that you know that don't know Christ. take this time, take this moment to pray for them.

[34:17] Pray that God would work in their heart and maybe use you as a means to give them the gospel but take this time to pray for them and maybe you've had given them the gospel and we're working through this text like oh yeah that family member they were very hostile towards me oh yeah I remember they were just fickle they were all over the map take this time to pray for them that God the Father would do His work of drawing them to Himself which only He can do by His Spirit and you know we'll sing a couple songs we'll pray I want to encourage you just a few moments what a minute and a half whatever pray for these people take this time to lift up these people to the Lord and God the work in their hearts to save them would you please do that now?

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