John 7:45-53

 John 7:45-53

Missing the Forest for the trees. 

to not understand or appreciate a larger situation, problem, etc., because one is considering only a few parts of it.

Overall, 2002 was a rather rough year for me. I will not get into it but if anyone would like the details, I will tell you in person some time. One of the few highlights of the year for me was the release of the first Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire. Prior to this movie superhero movies were at best mediocre. I loved this movie so much I saw twice in the same day! I saw it a total of 7 times in the theatre. One of those times I took my friend J to see it. After the movie I was like J what did you think? J said well this one scene the background changed slightly between cuts. I am like that is it? He is like yeah. Talk about missing the forest for the trees! Here was one of the greatest movies of all time and he is focused on a background inconsistency! J if you are somehow watching this know that I love you and I forgive you! Tonight, we see how the Pharisees miss the forest for the trees with Jesus. 

Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” 46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” 

Jesus is teaching at the synagogue during the Feast of Tabernacles. People are rejecting Him but people are also believing in Him! The pharisees want nothing to do with this. They failed attacking his words, they failed attacking his education, they failed attacking his background and birth. Now what do they have left? A show of force! They send their own private police force to arrest Jesus. They fail at this also. 

The arrest was unsuccessful, but it wasn’t because the arresting officers were incompetent. It was because the time wasn’t right yet, and it was impossible for Jesus to be stopped until it was right in the Father’s timing.

They come back empty handed. The pharisees are like what’s going on? You had one job! They answer “No man ever spoke like this Man!” We talk about this before. Can you imagine hearing a sermon directly from Jesus? A red letter Bible come to life! It would have been the perfect sermon! In content, delivery, volume, tone, etc. Let’s keep in mind that this is coming from the Temple Police. They worked in the temple day in and day out. They had heard hundreds if not thousands of Rabbis speak over the years. Yet, Jesus stands out. 

As some of you know I had about a 6-year concert going phase from 98 – 04. I went to sold out coliseums and tiny hole in wall places to see bands. I easily saw over 100 different bands in concert. Pastor Dave and Pastor Drew were with me for a lot of them. I even have some permanent hearing loss in my left ear as a result! Yet one concert in the spring of 2000 stands head and shoulders above them all. I saw the Kenny Wayne Shepherd band at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro with several of my friends. KWS is a talented blues guitarist and had just released his third album. He played for 2.5 hours straight. He did a double encore. He played two guitars at once. When he broke a string on his current guitar, he would toss it behind him and grab the next one. He finished his double encore with a 15 minute extended cover of Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Chile. He was in the zone playing I’m not sure he was aware there was a crowd around him. He finished the song, tossed the last guitar behind his back and walked off the stage. Then the lights went up and everyone left. Me and my cousin Jared rode home in silence for the first 20 minutes processing what we just saw. To this day I haven’t seen anything like it. 

The Officers tell the Pharisees No Man ever spoke like this! We miss some of the implication here.  In the Greek the word ‘man’ (Anthropos) occurs in the emphatic position at the end of the sentence and implies by contrast that he must be more than an ordinary human being. He’s more than just a man the officers say. 

47 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

The Pharisees respond here is the very definition of missing the forest for the trees. They refuse to consider the words of Jesus because they are coming from Jesus, a commoner, a man of Galilee, a common town full of common people. They despised the common people and looked down upon them. None of us “special” people believe in him (which wasn’t true) so you shouldn’t either! Only heathens believe in Jesus! 

 50 Nicodemus (he who came to [j]Jesus [k]by night, being one of them) said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?” 52 They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet [l]has arisen out of Galilee.” 53 [m]And everyone went to his own house.

Nicodemus tried to reason with the religious leaders, warning them against judging Jesus hastily. He even points out the law, the very thing they claimed to be zealous for, as his reasoning. We are only fans of the truth when it benefits us. When it doesn’t we will reach super far for anecdotal evidence to support our views. Nothing new about this. 

They shoot him down immediately! Are you also from Galilee? No prophet has ever arisen out of Galilee! They knew who Nicodemus was and where he was from. They never would have let him join if he was from Galilee. No prophet has ever come from Galilee also was not accurate. I imagine they knew and didn’t care. 

At least two prophets were from Galilee: Jonah and Elijah. Potentially, Nahum and Hosea as well. Their contempt for Galilee and desire to be right at all costs made them lose sight of historical accuracy. After all these years of awaiting the Messiah. He was right in front of them and they refused to acknowledge it. 

While preparing for tonight’s message I ran across the following quote from AW Tozer. “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. A.W. Tozer”

 

John 8:1-11 Fake Outrage

 

John 8:1-11

Fake Outrage

Everyone wants to be offended these days. Everyone wants to have their rant acknowledged on social media. We will get upset about anything really, usually under the pretense of claiming the moral high ground. In what is a first for me, I’m going to quote Urban Dictionary for a term. Fake Outage. generated as a way of trying to create a controversy for the purpose of political smearing. Often used as a weapon of both left and right-wing who use threats to achieve their goals. Usually involves but is not limited to emotional appeals. These individuals can be easily identified by refusing to engage in logical debate on said issues, because they either are incapable of doing so or they are purposely doing it to 'stir the pot.' Instead, they regurgitate talking points in an attempt to appear educated on a topic when they really aren't.

There is nothing new about this. The Pharisees and Sadduccess were masters of fake outage as we will see in tonight’s message.

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

² Now ^[a]early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding it. I would be doing you a disservice not to mention it. From manuscript current evidence, it seems unlikely that this portion was part of the original text of John’s gospel, or at least in this place. Most of the earliest ancient Greek manuscripts omit this section.  Many later manuscripts mark this section with asterisks. One group of manuscripts inserts this section after Luke 21:38. A few manuscripts have this section after John 21:24, and one has it after John 7:36.

 Some ancient Christians (such as Augustine and Ambrose) omitted this story, not so much because of the textual evidence but because they thought it made Jesus appear to approve of sexual immorality, or at least not regard it as serious.

At the same time, the character of the story makes it seem obvious that it is genuine, and many scholars note that it is historical and factual. Early Christian writers mention this account as soon as the early second century (a.d. 100). We have good reason to believe that this happened, and that John wrote it. There is some debate as to where it belongs in the Gospel accounts, but we can rest assured that it does belong.

 ³ Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, ⁴ they said to Him, “Teacher, ^[b]this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. ⁵ Now ^[c]Moses, in the law, commanded us ^[d]that such should be stoned. But what do You ^[e]say?” ⁶ This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, ^[f]as though He did not hear.

Jesus is teaching. The Pharisees bring him a woman, push her right into the middle of the group and then directly address Jesus. Now let us picture this for a minute. David is preaching and then a crowd of guys from the SBC come storming in dragging a woman behind them and shove her right in front of David. This is what just happened to Jesus.

Now they address Jesus and say “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act!” Let us pause and break down this statement. Teacher, one who teaches concerning the things of God, and the duties of man. This is a proper and fitting title for

anyone who officially taught in the Temple/Synagogue. These are the same people who just the other day were questioning Jesus education and birthright while trying to have him arrested. They continue, “this woman” pointing to the lady they just dragged in their and thrust in front of Jesus, was caught in adultery.

They are trying to accomplish multiple things. 1) Embarrass, Shame and humiliate this woman publicly. 2) show themselves as holy and above such terrible sin. 3) Connect Jesus directly to this woman in full view of the people in hopes of guilt by association.

Well with any case during these times you need 2 eyewitnesses and then to present evidence. What is their evidence? Caught in the very act. Two people watched her have sex with someone who was not her husband. Adultery is one of those sins that requires two people at a minimum. There is only one person being accused. This is a setup.

Here they are using fake outrage and pretending its righteous zeal. There is nothing new under the sun.

Now having made this big public show using the twin powers of theatricality and deception. They demand an immediate response from Jesus. They have him over a barrel, or so they think. If He says “Stone her” Then he comes across harsh and in violation of Roman Law which state only Rome had the power to execute criminals. If He said “Let her go” then he was soft on crime and in violation of the law of Moses.

He does neither! He stoops down and starts writing in the dirt with his finger. Wait, what? None of us would have responded that way. Some of us would have stood their stunned. Some would have asked for more information to bide time. Some of us would have tried to reason with those who had proven time and time again to be unreasonable. Who even considers writing in the dirt as an appropriate response? Jesus does!

What did he write? And for how long? I am so curious! It is on my big list of questions for when I arrive in glory. I mean I got hung on whether or not Noah got his Wings during David’s sermon from Sunday and I felt tangible relief once I found out that he did. What did Jesus write? Was it scripture? Did he just write someone’s name? Was it a word? A symbol? Was He just sketching? How did it relate to the situation at hand? No idea!

⁷ So when they continued asking Him, He ^[g]raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” ⁸ And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.  ⁹ Then those who heard it, being^[h] convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst

Regardless of your personal opinion concerning the January 6^th riot we can acknowledge the crowd got out of control. It the authorities hours to regain control of that situation and afterwards several people had lost their lives and hundreds were injured. We don’t even understand the long term consequences of that day either.

Jesus is facing a potentially similar situation. An angry mob calling for the death of someone they view as a criminal. Jesus is still writing in the dirt. They continued to ask him. You know they weren’t polite about it. Nor were they calm and collected either. Jesus stands up, speaks, and goes back to writing on the ground. He who is without sin let him cast the first stone.

You must admit. For a 15-word sermon that had some serious impact. For all the plotting, planning and scheming done to arrange everything so Jesus is placed in a seemingly impossible situation, Jesus defuses a bloodthirsty crowd with one sentence. No one has ever spoken like this man!

. ¹⁰ When Jesus had raised Himself up ^[i]and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers [j]of yours? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go [k]and sin no more.”

One act of compassion can be life changing. Is adultery wrong? Absolutely. Are we sinners who have not committed adultery somehow better than those who have? No. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Compassion and Theology cannot be separated in a life trying to live by the gospel. Jesus tells us the two great commandments were to love God and love our neighbor. A true pursuit of God will also involve pursuit of those that God loves, those who are most vulnerable. To miss that point is to miss God entirely. The Pharisees had knowledge of God. They had religious heritage, they gave a tithe of everything in their spice cabinet and offered all the right sacrifices at the right time. Yet, they missed the point entirely. Without a love for our neighbor the Bible is of no greater use to us than the latest self help book.

1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

Let’s replace our fake outrage with real tangible love.

Hide and Seek

 

^{John 7:32-39}

^{Hide and Seek}

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him. ³³ Then Jesus said ^[f]to them, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. ³⁴ You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.”

Jesus is attending the weeklong Feast of Tabernacles, a festival that celebrates God’s provision while Israel was in the wilderness. Jesus came up later after His family to celebrate. He knew the leadership there was seeking to kill Him and it was not yet His time.

Jesus had an opportunity to speak in synagogue and took it. We always see Jesus taking the chance to proclaim the gospel where to 1 or to thousands. As they always do, the people responded. The leadership wanted nothing to do with Jesus or the Gospel. They attempted to discredit his qualifications, then they questioned where he was from and to whom He was born. Yet, there were other people there that heard the gospel, responded, and believed! We take comfort in this.

Here people are hearing the Gospel from Jesus Christ! The living embodiment of Truth and they rejected it. We should not feel bad when in our human effort and power people reject us, after all Jesus set the example for us. People also believed though! We have no idea how the gospel will affect people in the long run.

The Pharisees upset by all this send officers to arrest Jesus to no avail! Until the time was right, no one could lay a hand on Jesus. There would come a time when Jesus would say that His hour had come, yet until that hour no one could touch Jesus! I realize this is the nerd in me, but this is how I picture this going down.

The officers go to arrest Jesus and Jesus pulls the original Jedi mind trick! “I shall be with you a little longer” then they go back to the pharisees and repeat “He shall be with us a little longer!” Jesus keeps repeating that it is not His time and soon He will go back to the Father. This concept is rather key to understanding John so file that away for now.  

³⁵ Then the Jews said among themselves, “Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What is this thing that He said, ‘You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come’?”

Where are you going? You cannot hide from the Pharisees in Jerusalem! It is like trying to keep a secret in person county. You know how three people keep a secret in person county? Two of them are dead!

Is Jesus going to go out into the Greek world? Maybe He can go teach the Greeks! This is a major insult. Teaching in a synagogue in Jerusalem was the Ivy League. To go teach Greeks outside of Israel was a considered the equivalent of one of those sketchy community colleges you hear about on the news, like Harfurd or princeington.  I can picture Paul being in this crowd and Jesus laughing on the inside knowing that Paul would one day be the Apostle to the Gentiles.   

³⁷ On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those ^[g]believing in Him would receive; for the ^[h]Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

The Feast of Tabernacles lasted eight days. All through the first seven days water from the Pool of Siloam was carried in a golden pitcher and poured out at the altar to remind everyone of the water God miraculously provided for a thirsty Israel in the wilderness. It seems that on the eighth day there was no pouring of water – only prayers for water – to remind them that they came into the Promised Land. This was the last feast-time Jesus would spend in Jerusalem before the Passover of His death. This was the last day of the last feast; the last time He would speak to many of them before His crucifixion.

Jesus had something important to say Important because of where He said it (standing in the temple courts, right outside the temple itself). · Important because of when He said it (at the last day of Tabernacles, after water had been poured out on the previous days). · Important because of how He said it (crying out, even shouting – in contrast to the general tone of His ministry, according to Isaiah 42:2: He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street).

 If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink: The celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles emphasized how God provided water to Israel in the wilderness on their way to Canaan. Jesus boldly called people to Himself to drink and satisfy their deepest thirst, their spiritual thirst.

 The invitation was broad because it said, if anyone. Intelligence, race, class, nationality, or political party does not limit it. Everyone is equal at the foot of the cross. The invitation was narrow because it said, if anyone thirsts. One must see their need. Thirst is not anything in itself; it is a lack of something. It is an emptiness, a crying need.

 

There is dispute among commentators as to if Jesus said this as water was being poured out, or if He did it on the day when no water was poured out. It is perhaps impossible to be certain, but John’s emphasis on the last day probably indicates that Jesus meant to show a contrast. “There’s no more water at the temple and in the rituals we love. I have the water you’re looking for.”

Jesus then alludes to the giving of the Holy Spirit that we see in Acts at Pentecost. This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive: This outflowing life and abundance comes in and through the presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer. This speaks of an experience that belongs to those believing in Him. The nature of that experience may differ among believers, but there is some aspect of it that is promised to all who will receive it by faith. We will dive into much greater detail concerning the Holy Spirit when we get to John 15 & 16.

 

Hard to Kill

 

John 7:25-31

Hard to Kill

One of the many great things about the 90s was the action movies. Typically featuring the talents of Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, or Arnold! Let’s not forget Jean Claude van Damme and Steven Segal for those that enjoyed the direct to video market. 6^th grade me was enamored with Steven Segal! I cannot tell you how many times I saw Hard to Kill. I even had a bootleg VHS copy of it 6 months before it came out to purchase! This was back when those required more effort than downloading them from the internet. Hard to Kill successfully describes pretty much every Segal movie ever (except Executive Decision which I maintain is a Kurt Russell movie). No matter what the bad guys tried they never could kill Segal’s character. Tonight, the pharisees start to discover that Jesus is also rather hard to kill.

²⁵ Now some of them from Jerusalem said, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill? ²⁶ But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is ^[d]truly the Christ? ²⁷ However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.”

Everyone is in Judea celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus has been teaching at the synagogue. Can you imagine hearing a sermon from Jesus? We talk constantly about the power of the Word of God.

Hebrews 4:12 “^For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for ^[c]instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

1 Peter 1:24-25 “The grass withers, And its flower falls away, ²⁵ But the ^[o]word of the Lord endures forever.”

Can you imagine hearing the Word of God in person from the living Word of God? One of my talents is public speaking. I can look back at my life and see how God prepared me for a life of public speaking. I took speech therapy classes for most of elementary school. My dad would take me to county commissioner meetings so I could observe him speaking in front of people.

I discovered in middle school that if I volunteered to be the speaker of the group project I didn’t have to do anything else. My classmates would spend all week on the work and I just had to stand in front of the class and read what they did for roughly 3 minutes. Then they thanked me for it! I even taught public speaking as part of the home schoolers co-op for the previous 3 years until current events happened and prevented me from continuing to do so. I’ve been speaking in public in some form of another for most of my life. Yet, I have a love/hate relationship with rewatching my sermons on YouTube. I watch and see what I messed up and what I can improve on. Tone, Volume, pacing, mannerisms, oops that was the wrong verse! What I said there was not even a word.

Jesus sermon here is perfect. His delivery of it is perfect as well. It is no wonder they marveled at His words!

The crowd sees the negative reaction by their religious leaders. Then they put two and two together. Wait, a minute! Isn’t this the guy they are plotting to kill? He is right there! He is right there in front of them. If you knew someone intended, you harm and had the capability to do so you would avoid that person. You certainly would not show up at their place of work and draw a crowd.  The boldness of our Lord in proclaiming The Gospel at every opportunity He had.

I have heard pastors say that the church lacks boldness. That is not the case. Our boldness is misplaced. We have been bold in the last year when it comes to expressing our opinions! Opinions about elections, protests, masks and conspiracy theories. Yet, where is that same boldness when it comes to the Word of God? When it comes to loving our neighbor as our self? When it comes to acknowledging our own sins and seeking forgiveness? It is nowhere to be found.

Convicted by the Word of God they had but 2 choices. Respond and change or find a reason to ignore it. As heart breaking as this is I also take comfort in it. If people responded this way to a sermon from Jesus, I shouldn’t be surprised when people reject me when I speak either. They found a reason to ignore it. We don’t know who this guys really is or where He is from. They might as well have asked for his birth certificate. Also, if you thought questioning where someone was born was a relatively new political concept you are wrong. There is nothing new under the son.

²⁸ Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, “You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. ^29 [e]But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.”

For years when I read “Jesus cried out” I just assumed He was yelling out of frustration. We can all relate. We have all lost our temper and raised our voice before.  Yet, that’s not what is going on here. Cried out can be translated two ways. 1) To cry out of vengeance or 2) to speak with a loud voice. Seeing as no one fell to the ground when He did so (which is not always the case in John) it is the second one. The crowd is murmuring amongst itself and Jesus raises His voice to be heard. 

I know the Father and I am from the Father. The crowds were perhaps confused about where the Messiah would come from, but Jesus knew exactly where He came from. Jesus was not a confused man, wondering if He was really the Son of God. His words were clear and powerful. Jesus is the Son of God.

³⁰ Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. ³¹ And many of the people believed in Him, and said, “When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?”

The pharisees and sadduccess understood exactly what Jesus was saying. It is why they sought to take Him. Yet, no one laid a hand on him because His time had not yet come. I am always curious what the actual logistics of a thing look like. They sought to take him. Were they just planning on different ways to do it? Did they try and they were stopped? Did they all get struck with brain fog? I mean he was right there! Surely, they had a way to remove someone from the stage that had gotten out of hand. Whatever it looked like they were powerless. One would think that combined with His words would be enough to convince them, but an unrepentant heart is a stubborn thing. What is the end though result? People believe! As many people as may walk away every time the gospel is preached let us not forget the people that are saved when The Gospel is preached! People like you and me.

Love it or hate it, today marks the beginning of a new era. This era demands clear-sighted action and relentless hope, which is only found in Jesus Christ It demands that we distinguish between reality and propaganda, between conviction and orthodoxy, between living peacefully with all people and violent extremism. The Gospel demands that we speak honestly about sin, suffering and hate and that we work daily to dismantle it in our lives. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. When we cast out fear we will cast out hate as well.

We must begin to hold ourselves to the standards set forth in the Bible: to be loving, to be forgiving, to be just, honest, and compassionate.  I would say every one of us, regardless of opinion or ideology would prefer to live in a world like that.    

 

 Hebrews 6:19-20 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, ²⁰ where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

 

Ports were not dredged like they are now. It was a very difficult thing to bring a ship into port with out wrecking it. They would take the anchor and put it into a very small boat and send that boat out, with the anchor in it, ahead of the ship. This small boat was called a forerunner. Once that boat arrived into the port it would tie that anchor to one of the huge rocks secured there at the port. Keep in mind the ship was still out at sea but its anchor was already in the port, secured. Once the anchor was secured the men in the ship would wait until the tides were right then they would use the anchor rope to pull the ship into the port safely, and securely. 

 

You see Christ is our forerunner. His death, burial and resurrection takes the anchor of hope beyond the veil for us. What was behind the veil? The Holiest of Holies where only the high priest dared to tread and even then only once a year. If the High Priest was not right with God when he went in then He was struck dead and dragged back out by a rope attached to him.  You see behind the veil was the very presence of God. Christ secured our hope for us, it’s nothing we need to, or even can do on our own. No amount of fanciful prayer, scripture quotations, or Ascetic lifestyle could ever achieve this.Christ made a way for us to enter into the presence of God safely and securely with no fear of condemnation. For there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. The Anchor of hope is secured by The Rock of Ages. 

 

Though the winds blow, The Anchor holds. Though the waves crash, The Anchor holds. The storms will come, the planks will crack, the sails will tear and the mast snap in half, The Anchor holds safely, securely, guiding us into the safety of the harbor, bringing us safely into the presence of God. 

 

 

 

Higher Education

 

John 7:14-24

Higher Education

In the last year a good majority of us have had a crash course in remote learning. In the last year I’ve had anywhere from 5-9 kids in my house the majority of whom were actively doing school from home and by that I mean on laptops at my kitchen table. Trying to make sure everyone’s laptops were working, on the Wi-Fi and everyone was attending their meeting at the scheduled time has been interesting to say the least. It’s made a lot of us appreciate all the hard work that goes into teaching our children and the value we should be placing on education.

Education holds value through the world and human history. Today people have access to more educational opportunities than ever before. My grandparents viewed a high school diploma as a luxury and now my children have seemingly limitless higher education opportunities.

In Jesus time, the ability to read and write, something a lot of us learn in Kindergarten, was considered a luxury. We see that play out in tonight’s message “Higher Education”  

¹⁴ Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. ¹⁵ And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?”

John Ch 7 starts a few months after the events of John 6. Jesus is at home being mocked by his brothers on his alleged failure in ministry after so many thousands walked away after being offended by the gospel. Make no mistake brethren, the gospel is offensive. In fact, if you are sharing the gospel consistently and people aren’t offended then you are doing something wrong. In John 15 Jesus refers to the Father as the vinedresser who prunes away the unfruitful vines. Sometimes a little is pruned, sometimes a lot.

His brothers go to Judea to celebrate the Feasts of Tabernacles. Jesus decides to come up later in secret because He knows the people who sought His life are there and will be looking for Him. Jesus gets there and soon is in the temple teaching/preaching The Gospel. Though Jesus avoided a grand entrance, when He came to Jerusalem in His Father’s timing, He taught boldly. He never shrank back from proclaiming the truth.

We too should take the chance to proclaim the truth whenever we get the chance. Whether we are sharing the gospel to 1 person or 1 million. What matters is not the size of the audience just that we are preaching the truth in love to God’s glory.

Jesus is teaching. How do the pharisees respond? This man has no education! The implication is “ignore everything he says because he didn’t go to seminary.” Convicted by His words, unable to refute them, they challenged His qualifications.

Jesus is two years into His ministry. He has already preached the sermon on the mount. The people acknowledge that He teaches as one with authority and not like the scribes. He’s done multiple miracles, none of which have been refuted because they witnessed them firsthand. He’s fed multitudes, healed the sick, raised the dead and calmed storms. Yet, the thing they want to point out is that He doesn’t have a degree.

Do you understand how patently ridiculous this statement is?!?!?!

John 1 starts with proclaiming Jesus as the Logos. The living embodiment of truth!  In Col 1 we learn that “¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or ^[e]principalities or ^[f]powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”

And they want to say He’s never studied?

^16 [c]Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. ¹⁷ If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. ¹⁸ He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. ¹⁹ Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” ²⁰ The people answered and said, “You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?”

Once again not taking the bait, He tells them He is simply sharing the word of God. He then says if you have an issue with what is written take it up with the author! Then you can see whether I am proclaiming the Word of God or in human authority. Jesus doesn’t seek His own glory but God’s.

He also calls them out. You don’t keep the law and you are seeking to kill me. They try to play it off like He’s crazy. You must be possessed, no one is trying to kill you.  They couldn’t say He was a liar. They couldn’t say He was God. All that was left is that He was crazy. The same goes for us. Is Jesus a liar, a lunatic, or our Lord?

²¹ Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one work, and you all marvel. ²² Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. ²³ If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

You can’t judge a book by its cover. I’m guilty of this. I have been humbled many a time in this regard. Have you ever had to interview someone for a job? I’ve had to do that a decent number of times in my life. You really have no idea what you are getting when you hire someone. That’s why a personal recommendation is so helpful.

When CCB was being bought by SunTrust my department got permission to hire contract workers to help with the merger. I was put in charge of the interviews and then make recommendations to my boss. She would interview them and then make a final decision.  I went 3 for 3 on the first three people I recommended for working at the bank. They all worked out fantastically. They fulfilled their entire contracts, showed up on time, followed orders and did good work.

I didn’t do so great on the second wave of hiring’s. The first guy I recommended was an hour late to his interview with my boss.  The second guy took a phone call in the middle of his interview. The third guy we hired! He did great his first day, was 2 hours late his second day and no showed his third day.

I judged according to appearance. We all do. We judge according to appearance, opinion and gut feeling. Then, we go to the Bible using a keyword search to try and find a single verse out of context to justify our decision.  The Pharisees are doing the same thing.

The claims of Jesus were astonishing.  They were shocking.  They were beyond bold.  They were really outrageous claims. Jesus said that he had come down from heaven, that he had eternally existed, that he had been sent into the world by the Father.  He claimed to be the savior of the world and the only savior of the world.  He claimed to be the determiner of everyone's eternal destiny.  The claimed to be the source of everlasting life, and the only source.  He claimed to be the only way to God. 

he man Jesus was indistinguishable from any other Galilean man.  He most likely had a Galilean accent and his deity was completely invisible.  What was visible was his humanity.  There was no way to see him any different than you would see any other man.

They had spent their whole life judging on appearance.  Its what hypocrites do.  That's what they sell.  That's what they produce.  That's the nature of hypocrisy.  Stop, Jesus said, doing that.  Judge righteously.

How do we judge people? Most recently it’s been how they vote. Are you on the left or the right? The liberal or the conservative? Republican or Democrat? Are you with us or against us? When we do that. We aren’t on the side of good either way. We aren’t going about the Father’s will we are about Satan’s will. Satan’s will is to divide, destroy and kill.

Who has the qualifications to lead us? To tell us what to do? God. God’s will is perfect. Jesus is our Lord, a good Lord a loving master who will lead us to blessing and eternal life