Would you turn with me to John chapter 7 please.
!
Are you committed to it and faithful to it?
Rain or shine, heaven or hell, I'm going to do this?
Or do you kind of have second thoughts about it?
In my own case, I'm kind of slow.
In fact, my daughter, Angela, has said that on my tombstone, she's going to have put on it,
here lies dad thinking about it.
Okay?
And the reason is because growing up, okay, every time she asked me if she could do something
or if she could have something, guess what I said?
Let me think about it.
I'm very slow at decisions.
Actually, when we go on vacation in Roodle Beach, there's an outlet mall.
And the outlet mall has a Columbia store.
I really like Columbia stuff.
And so, but the trouble is, my wife will tell you, we have to make more than one trip.
Okay?
That's because I need to go and see everything they have and decide if I really want to spend
the money or not.
And I kind of go back and forth.
And eventually, I have to go back and get something.
So we have to make a second trip back to the same outlet mall.
Recently, I decided, oh, I'm going to give Peggy my smartphone and I'm going to get a different
one.
Okay?
So I was talking to Pastor Andrew, asking him about, you know, what kind of smartphone do
you think I should get?
Guess what he said.
Okay?
The newest Apple.
Okay?
Well, actually, not the newest one.
So he told me about where I could get one, but I had to act quickly.
Okay?
I was, I was, I struggled with it for a day.
I said, yeah, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to get it.
And my wife just kind of looked at me.
Okay?
And then I finally said, by the end of the week, I said, no, I'm not going to do it.
And my wife said, I was wondering who that man was that was in our house because you never
make a decision like that.
But she doesn't know it yet, but I made a decision kind of quickly this week.
Well, this past week, I decided to buy a router table.
And I had committed on which router table I was going to buy.
And I went to the store, and there was a different one.
And I bought it.
I brought it home.
It's still in the box because I couldn't bring myself to open it.
Tomorrow, she doesn't know this yet, tomorrow we're taking it back to get the one that I
was going to get.
Well, all that aside, there is one decision that every single person must make.
It's the most important decision of your life.
Would you follow along as I read John chapter 7, verses 25 to 36?
Some of the people of Jerusalem, therefore, said, is not this the man whom they seek to kill?
And here he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him.
Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
But we know where this man comes from.
And when Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.
So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, you know me?
You know where I'm from?
But I have not come of my own accord.
He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.
I know him, for I came from him, and he sent me.
So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.
Yet many of the people believed in him.
They said, when the Christ appears, will you do more signs than this man has done?
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him.
And the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.
You will seek me, and you will not find me.
Where I am, you cannot come.
And the Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him?
Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
What does he mean by saying, you will seek me, and you will not find me?
And where I am, you cannot come.
Remember the setting here.
Remember the situation from last week.
Jesus had come down to Jerusalem.
He had taught, and they had tried to arrest him and kill him.
He went back to Galilee, and he's back in Galilee teaching there.
And his brothers, in disbelief, say, you want to be something special?
Go down to Jerusalem.
Because it's the feast of the tabernacle.
It's one of the biggest feasts of the year.
And everybody else is going to be there.
Jesus said, I will not go, because it's not time.
Last week, we saw he did go.
And here he is in the temple, teaching openly, and teaching with clarity and authority.
Today, we're going to see the reaction to his teaching.
Just like in our day, as we will see from our passage, the reaction of people to Jesus was not always direct.
It's not always simple and straightforward.
It's not always accepting.
The first thing I want you to see and understand is that Jesus responded to the apparent confusion.
In fact, in this case, in Jesus' day, he confronted people's confusion.
The people of Jerusalem were confused.
They didn't recognize the Messiah.
And they did what you would expect them to do.
They thought, well, what about our leaders?
What about those who are supposed to know?
Let's see what they're saying.
And they looked at their leaders, those who had supposedly more information,
and they seemed to be getting mixed messages.
On the one hand, the leaders often confronted Jesus.
They had threatened the people that if you believe in Jesus, if you follow him,
we're throwing you out of the synagogue.
That was the equivalent to being thrown out of the society.
And they had tried to arrest him on more than one occasion.
And here he is on one of the biggest days, biggest feast days of the year,
teaching openly in the temple, and there's crowds around him.
There's a sense in which they're thinking, maybe there was something to this.
Maybe there's something we're not being told.
And if it stopped right there, we would say, well, all they need is a little more information.
All they need is to have things explained to them.
All they need is for their leaders to say, yes, this is the man.
And they're beset.
But the text doesn't end there.
See, the people also had a theology of Messiah.
They knew what they were looking for.
Or they thought they did.
It was made up mostly of the teachings of men,
mixed in with some passages that they had either taken out of context or misinterpreted.
I don't want to get into all the detail and kind of get lost in that this morning.
But let me just say that Jesus was very different than what they were expecting to see.
See, what they expected was that there would be this man.
He would be in Bethlehem.
And one day, he would just appear out of nowhere.
And he would have such presence, such command, such military prowess that everybody would simply follow him.
They thought, well, when Messiah comes, there's not going to be any question
because he's going to set up the kingdom and the kingdom that we Jews get to be leaders in.
And here's Jesus.
He's authoritative.
But he's also meek.
He lives in the back country of Nazareth, not the metropolis of Jerusalem in Bethlehem, which is close by there.
He seems to be more concerned about meeting people's needs than about military conquest.
Jesus didn't fit the people's preconceived idea of what Messiah would be.
And so they didn't accept him.
There was more to it than just misunderstanding.
The Jews' nationalistic pride in their personal sin stood in the way of them really looking to God and his answer for their need.
Their unrepentant hearts were blocking their view of what God was going to do to restore his people to himself.
You've heard the old saying, they couldn't see the forest for the trees.
Well, they couldn't see their need for their self-righteousness.
And Jesus understood it was really not confusion, but it was rebellion.
We know this guy.
We know where he's from.
And we will not have this man rule over us.
That's really what they were saying.
When we see that, it helps us understand why Jesus responds to them the way he did.
Jesus' response to them is to confront their hard-hearted unbelief.
When Jesus said, you know me?
It could be that he was making the statement, you know me.
But I don't think that's what he was doing.
Because if you look at how they reacted to what he said, it was pretty strongly.
I think Jesus asked that to them as a question.
And remember, I told you last week that in the text, there's no punctuation.
So we don't know what tone Jesus used in doing this.
But I think Jesus said, you think you know me?
You think you know where I'm from?
Let me tell you where I'm from.
When Jesus said that, it could have been either way, but I think it was clearly that.
Remember what he had just said in verse 24.
He had just said, judge rightly and not by appearances.
Here they are looking at the appearances and they think that's the solution.
Jesus goes on, God sent me, but you don't know him, so you don't recognize me.
I said last week, these right judgments that come from a right relationship.
And Jesus is saying to those individuals there that day, you don't have the right relationship,
so you're not making the right judgment.
They thought they knew God because they knew the law.
But Jesus said, but you don't obey it anyway.
Here again, they had it all confused.
Over and over in the Gospels, we see Jesus trying to woo the Jews to himself.
And over and over again, we see them rejecting.
It actually proceeds after this.
Look over to Romans chapter 9.
Romans chapter 9.
One of the most direct teachings or passages on this.
Romans chapter 9, verses 4 to 6.
In other words, is there any good to being a Jew?
Is there anything worthwhile in being a Jew?
Yes.
Because it's the Jews that God gave his word to.
It's the Jews that God gave the tabernacle and then subsequently the temple to.
It's the Jews that God gave the worship to.
It's the Jews that God gave the heritage to.
And it is to the Jews that he sent his son.
But I didn't finish the passage.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed.
For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
What Paul was saying is, just because of your birth certificate doesn't mean that you have a relationship with God.
Just being a good Jew is not going to get you into heaven.
Just being a Jew and having that relationship with God doesn't mean that you really have a relationship with God.
People today have a different problem, or slightly different, but it's related.
At the core of what people think today is that sin is not really that bad.
In fact, the sin that they do is not even really a sin.
It's just a choice.
And God, of course, wouldn't punish or limit in any way our personal choices, would he?
Sins of others.
Even against us.
Well, they should be punished, but we want the person to be rehabilitated.
We want to give them a better education, better economics, better opportunity, so it will never happen again.
But God can't possibly hold them responsible for that, can he?
Yes.
Don't all roads lead to the same place?
No, they do not.
I'm going to say it very simply, very clearly.
Salvation is only in Jesus Christ.
I want to remind you of two passages.
I know that most of you are familiar with them, know them.
Both of them are in the book of Acts.
You don't have to turn to them.
I'm going to read them to you.
But if you want to, the first one's in Acts chapter 4, verse 12.
And there is salvation in no one else.
For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Chapter 16 of Acts.
A man facing death cries out for help.
He says, what must I do to be saved?
And the answer is, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.
There are not multiple ways to heaven.
There is only one way to heaven.
Whether you are the nicest person or a mass murderer makes no difference.
You have only hope in Jesus Christ.
Whether you are Jew, Greek, English, Irish, Italian, Swahili, Japanese, Chinese, or Martian.
There is only one God.
And His answer to sin is acceptance of Jesus Christ.
Being a good person, being a good Jew, will no longer be the answer, only Christ.
You know, I don't think we take that seriously enough.
Well, I've got this Uncle Joe.
I don't have any uncles.
I have this Uncle Joe.
And Uncle Joe is pretty well-to-do.
And he's really a nice person.
I'm certainly not going to confront him about his relationship with Christ.
He doesn't really have one.
But he's a nice person.
I certainly don't want to offend him.
This person I work with that I don't give a hoot about when it really comes down to it.
I don't want to offend them.
So I'm not going to tell them that what they're seeking after has no hope.
We don't take it seriously.
Next thing I want you to see is the response of the people.
Which was division.
The result of Jesus' coming is not the division of Jews and Gentiles,
but believer in Jesus Christ or enemy of God.
Jesus' exalted claims forced people to decide about him,
and the result was always division.
Always division.
It's always true.
Jesus does not bring world unity,
at least not in the way that people expect.
Those who strive for ecumenicalism miss the point.
We have brothers and sisters all over the world.
And we don't need to pick at them and argue with them about every single little detail.
But there is unity only in full acceptance of Jesus Christ for salvation.
That's what he said.
And that division leads not only to peoples, not only to nations,
but it also comes right down to the family.
I will ask you to turn to this one, Matthew chapter 10.
Matthew chapter 10, verses 34 to 36.
Jesus is speaking.
Matthew 10, verses 34 to 36.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
There are some of you here this morning who understand this on a personal level.
Because the day that you came to Christ,
your family said,
we want none of that.
It's not just families, external associations,
but we're also divided, we're changed and divided internally.
Where acceptance of Jesus Christ always separates us
from what we were and from the world.
It's one of our great hopes.
That as a result of salvation, I'm now a new creation.
That old things have passed away,
and the new truly has come.
There's now no connection between me and the world and its practices.
We're in the world, but we're not of the world.
All of us still battle the old self.
But if there's no battle going on,
perhaps it's because there's no new self.
And if there is a battle,
we should be able to see little victories.
Maybe not the big battles,
but we ought to see some little skirmish that is successful.
And I hope you can see those.
Come back to the passage in John.
And I want to take a couple of minutes
and just look at an aside here.
Because I think it's really important.
It's something we could easily just kind of skip over.
Here in the passage, we see three groups of people.
The first group are people who are offended by his claims.
And they try to lay hands on him.
And they're unable to do that.
The second group believed in him.
And at least because of his miracles,
they at least for the moment are committed to Jesus Christ.
The third group is kind of a strange group.
I won't go into this one.
But the Pharisees and the priests hated each other.
They were not buddies.
And in fact, if you remember in Acts,
Paul uses that fact at one of his trials
to bring such confusion
that they just have to put him back in the jail cell
and just cancel the hearing
because none of the people can agree.
Because he set the Pharisees against the Sadducees,
which is the group of chief priests.
But their hatred for Jesus is so strong
that they join forces during that day.
And they do everything they can
to try to remove him from the public arena.
But that's not the thing I want you to notice.
What I want you to notice is go looking at verse 30.
A little phrase there.
It says,
This idea of the time or the hour
is a common one.
And John appears more than eight times.
David had said it best back in Psalm 31.
You don't need to turn to this.
Psalm 31 verse 15.
My times are in your hand.
Rescue me from my enemies and from my persecutors.
Here we are at the Feast of Tabernacles.
It's a time when they're celebrating
the trip through the wilderness.
They're celebrating the fact that God brought them through
and he brought them into a land of rest.
It's six months before Passover.
And though he's surrounded by danger,
the anger of the Jerusalemites,
the hostile desire for power of the leaders,
and even the questionable belief of those who say,
well, at least look at his miracles.
Jesus was in reality free from all danger.
Because it was not the will of God
that he should die at this time.
So here's the thing I want you to understand.
Nothing happens out of time in our lives.
And there is no safer place
than to be at the center of God's will.
Maybe you face health issues, concerns,
financial concerns.
Maybe there's family problems.
Nothing happens out of time.
Nothing is surprise to God.
Nothing is outside of his control.
Maybe it's not the specifics.
Maybe it's just that we live in such a frightening time.
To simply let your family members
outside, out of your sight
can flood us with worry and fear.
Just sending our children off to school
can frighten us.
There's no place safer than the center of God's will.
There was a situation in our family
just a couple weeks ago.
June Stoll, and I've already checked with her
if it was okay for me to tell this.
June Stoll was going to stay the week
with our grandchildren
while Rob and Steph went to a conference.
And so, June and Gary were there
same time we were there.
And they needed to come back.
And then June was going to come back.
So, Joseph and Samuel decided
that they would go with Grandma
and they would ride with her.
And that way they could go back with her
so she would have someone with her.
And also they'd be able to,
Joseph would be able to share with the driving.
So, they're traveling back
and they stopped at one of the roadside rests.
And this guy came up to June
and said,
hey, can you help me with a situation
over here in my car?
At one of the roadside rests on 70.
And she just kind of looked at this young man
and said, I don't think so.
Got in the car.
Samuel said,
you know, nanny,
there was nobody in that car
until after he went back to it.
And then three guys were in there.
They were just hiding
down on the seats.
They drove on
and at the next roadside,
there's another one.
There's several of them in a row
in Indiana on 70.
And they got to the next one
and Joseph, who was driving,
told Samuel,
look over there and see if you see that car.
And Samuel said,
yeah, it's that silver one over there.
At the next roadside rest.
We stop at that roadside rest
every time we go to Indiana.
There is no place safer
than being in the will of God.
I want to remind you
that Jesus came
to die for the sins of the world.
Here at the Feast of Tabernacles,
there is absolutely no danger
despite the appearances.
Six months
in the future,
when they come together
for the Passover,
the celebration
of the land
dying as a sacrifice
so that its blood
could mark God's people
and they would be protected
from God's wrath.
I want to be careful
how I say this,
but because of the will of God,
His hour
will come
and no power
on heaven
or on earth
can stop
what is going to happen
that day.
There's no place
safer
than being
in the will of God.
Back to the main point.
Jesus confronts,
He divides,
and He gives
a clear warning.
Then Jesus said,
I will be with you
a little longer,
and then I am going
to Him who sent me.
You will seek me,
and you will not
find me.
Where I am,
you cannot come.
In the midst of this
rather tense situation,
Jesus proclaimed
very clearly
that they had
to make a decision.
Last week,
you saw
that He said,
you think because
you know the law
of Moses
that you know
God's will,
but none of you
keep it.
then here,
as some believe
and accept
while others reject,
He presents
the way
to know
the will of God
by acceptance
of Him.
And here,
in this declaration,
Jesus makes
the truth clear.
In the presence
of the Father,
there is no room
for those
who have refused
to accept
the Son.
One last thing
I want you to notice
there.
because it's the hope
of all of us today.
John MacArthur
wrote this.
They found the idea
that the Messiah
would minister
to Greeks,
to Gentiles,
to be preposterous.
They were mocking
His warning.
But they do not realize
that what they're saying
in mockery
contains
a wonderful
prophecy.
Did God send
a message
of Christ
to the Gentiles?
Yeah.
The gospel
is open
to all.
Regardless
of race,
color,
nationality,
no matter
what you've done,
no matter
where you've been,
whether you are
young or old,
the offer
of salvation
is there.
neither you
nor I
know your hour.
I do know
that no matter
what you do,
that hour
will not change.
I don't know
how many days
you have left,
but I do know
that today
can be the day
of salvation.
I'm going to ask
you to look
at four passages
with me,
just briefly.
If you don't have
a Bible this morning,
there's one in the pew
right in front of you.
You can take that one.
I'm going to actually
give you the page number.
And if you don't have
one of your own,
you can take that one
with you.
For those who do not,
who have not
accepted Christ,
I trust these
are a clear warning.
For those of you
who have,
I trust they're
a wonderful
encouragement.
First one's in Isaiah
chapter 55
in verses 6 and 7.
The pew Bible
is on page 615.
Isaiah 55
verses 6 and 7.
Seek the Lord
while he may be found.
Call upon him
while he is near.
Let the wicked
forsake his way
and the unrighteous man
his thoughts.
Let him return
to the Lord
that he may have
compassion on him
and to our God
for he will
abundantly pardon.
Isaiah is saying
don't delay.
God wants to have
compassion.
2 Corinthians chapter 6
verse 2.
It's on page 966.
2 Corinthians 6.
2.
For he says
in a favorable time
I have,
I listened to you
and in a day
of salvation
I have helped you.
Behold,
now
is the favorable time.
Behold,
now
is the day
of salvation.
Now is the day.
If you have not
accepted Christ,
do it now.
If you have,
who do you know
that you plan
to plead with
one more time?
Hebrews chapter 4
verse 7.
I'm going to focus
on the second part of it.
It's on page 1003
in the Pew Bible.
Today,
if you hear his voice,
do not harden
your heart.
Let me get you
back to John.
John chapter 6
verses 35 to 37.
It's on page
892
of the Pew Bible.
892.
Jesus said to them,
I am the bread
of life.
Whoever comes
to me
shall not hunger.
Whoever believes
in me
shall never thirst.
But I say
to you
that you have
seen me
and yet
do not believe.
All that the
Father gives me
will come to me
and whoever
comes to me
I will never
cast out.
Right there
in the middle
in verse 36
again
is the same
warning
that Jesus
has.
Again,
I don't know
your hour.
I don't know
if you will
have another day.
I don't know
if I'll have
another day.
So I plead
with you.
Today is the day.
Do not harden
your heart
because the day
could come
when the door
is closed.
that's exactly
what Jesus
was warning
these people.
You will seek
me and you
will not find
me.
You will want
to go where
I am
and you may
not come.
One day
they would no
longer be able
to follow,
no longer able
to go where
he was going.
Here it is,
the simplicity
of the gospel.
Agree with
God that you
are a sinner.
accept
that Jesus
Christ
is God
the Son.
He gave
his life
for you
on the cross.
And then
put your faith
and trust
in him
for your
salvation.
Would you
pray with me?
Father,
the gospel
is so simple
and yet
for the
hardened heart
is so difficult.
Father,
I pray
today
that you
would work
in the hearts
that are
hardened,
that you
would soften
them,
that you
would open
them to the
truth.
and that
someone
would come
to Christ
recognizing
the sinfulness
of their
own heart
and accepting
the truth
of his
provision.
If you're
here this
morning and
that's you,
then I pray
that you
will recognize
that
and will
cry out
to God
and beg
for salvation.
Father,
for those
of us
who are
here today
that have
come to
the place
of salvation,
first,
it's great
news.
It's wonderful
to hear
the truth
that simply
believing in
Jesus Christ
is enough.
It's an
encouragement
to us,
but it's also
a challenge
to us
to remember,
to think
that people
around us,
people we
care about,
people we
love,
have hardened
their hearts
and have not
come to
acceptance of
you.
Father,
we pray
that you
would help
us,
give us
words to
say,
give us
opportunities.
If you
do not
have us
in that
family member,
we pray
that you
would bring
someone to
them that
would tell
them the
truth,
that it's
not about
choice,
it's about
sin.
And it's
not about
offense to
people,
but it's
an offense
to you.
Father,
help us to
be committed
to that.
And if
there's anyone
here that's a
believer that
makes that
commitment,
I pray that
you would
speak to
God right
now,
tell him I'm
going to
work at
that.
Gracious
Father,
we thank you
for our
Lord Jesus
Christ,
for his
clear
teaching,
for his
miracles,
but most
of all,
for his
finished
work on
the cross.
We pray
in Jesus'
name.
Amen.
Thank you.