John Lesson 22

Introduction

To you, welcome to Let the Bible Speak. I’d like to encourage you to get your New Testaments and open with me to the reading found in the Gospel of John. We’re studying in chapter seven. We’ve been going through a verse by verse study of this grand book that tells us about the deity of Jesus Christ. Who is Christ? What do you believe about him? This program is called Let the Bible Speak because we seek to simply open the Bible and let it teach the doctrine concerning Jesus Christ. Not the opinions of men, but really just the Word of God. And the best way to study the Word of God is verse by verse. So many times there are teachers who skip from one place to the other, and while certainly other passages of the Bible will corroborate and agree with itself, yet the best way to really study the Bible is in one place, verse by verse, what does it say?

And so that’s our study of the Gospel of John, and I hope you’ve been following along with us. We’re in John chapter seven, really we’ve gotten to about verse 25 for the beginning place of our study today. The context of John 7 is about six months before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The way we know that is that he was crucified at a feast of Passover. But in John chapter 7, it was the Feast of Tabernacles, which occurred some seven uh some six months before Feast of Passover. Uh these two feast days were important to Jewish holy days. Uh each uh time uh these occurred, the the every male Jew was required to go up to Jerusalem where the temple was to worship God. The Feast of Tabernacles was over an eight day period, and so it was during this period of time, this eight day period, the Feast of Tabernacles, that that the uh occasion of John chapter seven uh is taking place.

And what we see in this context is that there’s much confusion about who Jesus Christ really is. Had we lived in the first century, you would have found that you would have had to make a decision. Who is Christ? You couldn’t have just folded your arms and said, Well, I’ll let my religious teachers find out, and they’ll tell me, and I’ll just believe them. That’s the way some people approach religion today. They don’t open their Bible and read for themselves. They just sort of let their religious preachers or teachers tell them what they should know or what they think they should know. Well, it might be that you have a faithful teacher and he’s teaching you only the word of God. But you still should do like those in Thessalonica and Acts chapter 17 and verse 11, and you search the scripture for yourself.

You listen to the word all right, but you test it. You read for yourself what saith the word of truth. You can believe a lie. You can believe false doctrine. The devil has many preachers out here who are preaching as though they’re teaching God’s word when in fact they’re teaching lies along with it. That’s the method of the devil. The Bible says that about him. Jesus said in John 7, verse 17 that if you will to do his will, if you really want to know, if you’ll search it, you desire it above all else, you can know the truth. But another key verse that we close our lesson with last time is verse 24 when he said, Judge, not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

Don’t be moved by emotion. Don’t be moved with just kind of a surface type of facts given to you, but rather understand the whole picture. You draw everything together on a particular topic. Get every verse the Bible talks about concerning any Bible topic, and you’ll know the truth. You judge righteous judgment. Don’t go by feelings, don’t go by the popular thought of the day, but go by the word of God. Judge righteous judgment. Now that was said in response to the religious leaders of his day who were opposing Jesus Christ. They would not have the people believe Jesus to be the Messiah. And in fact, as our text of verse 25 begins to unfold, there was confusion about who is Jesus. If you have your Bibles open, read with me from John chapter 7, I’m beginning in verse 25.

When he said, Then said some of them of Jerusalem, is not this he whom they seek to kill? But lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit we know this man whence he is, for when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am. And I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom you know not. But I know him, for I am from him, and he hath sent me. Then they sought to take him. But no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.

1. Three Questions Raised Concerning Jesus Christ

And many of the people believed on him and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? Now, there are really three different questions that are raised in these few verses we’ve just uh read concerning Jesus Christ. As he was in Jerusalem, there are some, verse 25, said, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? Is this the one they’re they’re seeking to kill? And uh that’s some it seems a form of doubt on their minds as to why would they seek to kill Jesus Christ. What he speaks is is as though man one uh a man with authority, as though one who knew what he was talking about. And why would they seek to kill him? What he has done as has been good works.

He’s healed the lame man. He’s done other signs or miracles that testified he’s the Son of God. Why would they seek him, seek to kill him? But then another question is raised in verse 26. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Do they know that he’s the Christ? Is he the Messiah, the promised one of the scriptures? And then in verse 31, the third question, when Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? Now the point of that question is rather difficult to determine from the scripture itself, whether they’re asking it in the form of a doubt, uh when the Christ comes, uh should he do more than what Jesus is doing? Or in the form of a confirmation, well, surely the Christ when he comes won’t do any more than what he’s doing.

We’re not really certain which way the flow of thought is going in verse 31. But the question is, they obviously observe that he’s done some miracles. He has worked some signs which no man could do except God be with him. And they were testimony. The signs were testimony that he is the Christ, the Son of God. So there was some confusion. There were questions being raised. Who is this Jesus? Now Jesus said to them in verses 28 and 29, you really don’t know me. Now you may think that you know the Father, but I know him, and I’m from Him, and He has sent me. But you both know me and you know whence I am. I’m not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom you don’t know.

You know not. What does He mean? That’s pretty strong words. Here we’re He’s talking to religious people. They’ve gathered in Jerusalem to worship God. This is the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s a holy day. And Jesus is saying, You don’t really know him. Back in chapter 5 in verses 37 and 38, Jesus said, The Father Himself, which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. And you’ve neither heard his voice at any time nor seen a shape. You’ve not his word abiding in you, for whom he has sent? Him you believe not. You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me, and ye will not come to me that you might have life. In essence, in John 5, these verses, Jesus is saying, the very fact that you’ve rejected me as the Son of God is proof that you do not know the Father.

Now you may be religious. You may claim by physical or fleshly inheritance to be a Jew and therefore of the lineage of Abraham and therefore the child of God, that is in the flesh, but you don’t really know the Father. By the fact you’ve rejected the testimony, even your searching the scriptures. Yet you don’t believe them because they testify to me. And you don’t believe me. That’s a strong indictment, isn’t it? You know there are those today who are religious, who may be religiously wrong. They think they know God, they think they know the Christ. They search the scriptures, but their mishandling of the scriptures, their attitudes that are so prejudiced and so corrupted in the way that they handle the scriptures prove that they really do not know God.

It is so important that we keep an open Bible and an open mind that as we search the scriptures we correctly understand them in light of their context and not take them out of our context and misapply them. Who is the Christ? Now you know it’s one thing to read the text and talk about the attitude of the Jews nearly two thousand years ago. But to make this lesson really applicable, the question really ought to be raised, what would you have done with Jesus? What would you have believed about Jesus? Would you have accepted Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God? Well, the answer really should be given by the way you act even now. You know, Jesus talked about those who who were blind leaders of the blind.

2. Ye Shall Seek Me and Shall Not Find Me

You remember that passage in Matthew 15, 13 through 14? And he said, They both shall fall into the ditch. Those who just blindly accept what others tell them, without searching for themselves, they would have rejected Jesus Christ. And those of the first century, who were blindly following their leaders, did reject Jesus Christ. Now, do you accept what the Bible says, or what you’ve always believed and what you’ve always taught, uh been taught by someone else? Well, let’s look a little further. In verses 32 through 36, the Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests and officers to take him. Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.

Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am thither ye cannot come. Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go? But we shall not find him. Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am thither ye cannot come? Well, Jesus puzzled them by saying, I’m going to go to a place and you cannot find me. Of course, he seemed to be talking about his ascension back to be with the Father. After his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus ascended to the Father. And they were no longer seeing, for he no longer was on the earth.

But but they sort of threw that off. Well, you does he does he mean that he’s going to go maybe into some distant land, maybe in a country where the Gentiles live and he thinks we cannot find him. What does he mean by this? We’ll seek him but cannot find him. Well, the real application of this is that there are those who say they are seeking Jesus Christ. But they’ll not find Christ because of the way they’re seeking him, the methods that they are using. And so it was these Jews. They they sought the Messiah, all right. They were looking for the Son of God to come, all right, but they had the wrong methods of searching for him. They were looking for the wrong Christ.

3. If Any Man Thirst, Let Him Come Unto Me

They had their own opinions about what he would be like and and what kind of kingdom he would have on this earth. But Jesus came to establish a spiritual kingdom, and that’s what he did. Jesus Christ came to die for those who were sinners and to ascend to be at the right hand of God again, and that’s what he did. But they never really found him, because they were searching for the wrong one. You and I must keep our hearts and minds open that we search in the right way, that we might find the Lord. You may notice that he says in the next few verses, 37 through 39, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Now, Jesus, it says in the last day of the great day, on the last day or the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles was a holy convocation uh convocation, the scripture describes it as being a time when there was a total general assembling. And so it was on that day that that when all the multitude was gathered together that Jesus stood and said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Jesus will provide living water.

Now, he’s talking about perhaps the fulfillment even of the prophecy that Isaiah made many years earlier in Isaiah chapter 12 and verse 3, where he spoke how that with joy those who in the days of the Messiah would drink out of the well of salvation. That when we come to know the salvation through Jesus Christ, there is living water. Jesus came that men might have life and that more abundantly. And those who follow the Lord, who find the salvation in him, indeed have joy. They do drink of the out of the well of salvation. In chapter Revelation chapter 22 and verse 17, Jesus said, Whosoever will, let him come and drink freely of the water of life. Salvation is for all. I know that every person has problems.

No doubt everyone watching has some kind of trouble bearing down upon you. Jesus Christ can come and into your heart and relieve you of the troubles and the problems of your life. That doesn’t mean that he’s going to remove every sickness you may have. He doesn’t mean that he’s going to completely remove every sorrow and everything about life is just as though it were heaven on earth. That isn’t what he’s saying, or the promise of the Lord. The greatest problem anyone has is sin. And Jesus can remove that by forgiving us of our sins. Through his precious blood there is forgiveness. And then when we come into a saved relationship with Jesus Christ, it changes our outlook on every other thing about this life. It changes the problems, and the Lord is there willing and able to help us bear our problems.

And to raise us up and lift us up and have the hope of heaven as as our anchor, as our goal, knowing that there is there is a reality in the world yet to come, a reality of being with the Lord, where all sorrow or all pain, where all hunger and thirst is removed. Do you have the spirit in you? If you’re saved by Jesus Christ, then indeed you’re filled with the Spirit. But he says here the out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Verse 39 says, He’s speaking about the Holy Ghost. He’s speaking about the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. Those who accept Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 2 and verse 38 on the day of Pentecost, they were told repent and be baptized, every one of you.

In the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. Those who walk by faith, who walk by the Spirit, as Romans chapter 8 and verse 12 describe. They are led by the Spirit. And these are the ones who have come to understand salvation. And indeed they drink with joy out of the well of salvation. Oh, what a great relief to know that Christ is in us. And that by his spirit we’re guided unto living fountains of water. I hope that you’ll stay with us. We’re going to pause just for a moment. And then we’ll come back and continue our study in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of John. 737 through 39, Jesus had just equated that those who would come to him, if any man would thirst, let him come unto him and drink.

4. A Division Among the People: Is This the Christ?

Actually, one would not drink literally of Jesus Christ, but but he’s using a figure of speech to talk about believing in him. And those who believe on Jesus Christ come to salvation. They shall have rivers of living water. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Christ came to seek and to save the lost. After he made that significant statement, John chapter many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth, this is the prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Had not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seat of David and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was. So there was a division among the people because of him.

And some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. Again, there was confusion over Jesus Christ. Is he the Christ? We’ve been pointing out all along, as we’ve studied through chapter seven, how that the multitude was had some mixed reactions, and there was confusions at confusion over who is Jesus. The religious leaders were not un undecided about it. They very clearly and plainly were rejecting Jesus Christ, opposing him, and even seeking his life.

And therefore, verse verse 40, some of them said, This is the prophet. Now they would have been referring with that question to the prophecy made by Moses himself in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 15. Moses had told them that God would raise up a prophet like unto him, that is like unto Moses. And when this new prophet came unto him, they should hearken. And so the children of Israel were looking for the coming of the prophet like Moses, the deliverer, the lawgiver. Is this the prophet? Surely Jesus is that prophet. But at this point in time, it just simply says that that some said of a truth, he is. But then in verse 41, others said, This is the Christ. Now the word Christ literally means uh the anointed one or the Messiah.

And and there is the contention. Is Jesus that anointed one? Is he the Messiah? Is he the Christ of whom the scriptures were were prophesying and speaking? And some said, Well, surely he must be, but but others thought they had the answer to that that he couldn’t be, because they raised the question, Shall Christ come out of Galilee. Well now, the Messiah was not to come out of Galilee. In fact, even they knew the scripture this much. They said he he should come out of the town of Beth Bethlehem. And furthermore, he should be the seed of David. Now they had those who thought they knew Jesus had watched him grow up in Nazareth of Galilee. And he had spent so much of his personal ministry during his personal ministry up around uh Capernaum and and and in that area, the Sea of Galilee.

And so they were saying, Why he’s of Galilee in Bethlehem, which is south of Jerusalem, why why he doesn’t fit what the scripture said. Micah 5 and verse 2 had prophesied that out of Bethlehem of Ephrata, even so he should be born. And what they didn’t know was that Jesus fulfilled that scripture. We know that he was born in the town of Bethlehem, even as the prophet had had said over seven hundred years before this time. But furthermore, is he of the seed of David? Now he didn’t try to come in royal attire and gather an army about him and and sit on an earthly throne in the city of Jerusalem like David, but he did fulfill the scripture. He was of the lineage of David.

5. Never Man Spake Like This Man; Prejudice Is a Thief

Even through both Joseph’s side as well as Mary’s side. Had they followed the lineage, and you can study both the accounts in Luke as well as in Matthew, his lineage goes back through David to Abraham, even to Adam, Luke gives it, and and to Abraham Matthew gives it. He is of the seed of David, as Isaiah chapter eleven and verse one and Jeremiah twenty-three and verse five had predicted that he would be the root of of the branch of of David, of Jesse, that he would be of that lineage. Jesus Christ fulfilled the scripture. He is the Son of God. He is the Christ. But there was still a division among the people. Now reading in verse 45, then came the officers to the chief priests and and Pharisees, and and said unto them, Why have you not brought him?

The officer said answered, Never man spake like this man. Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, He that came to Jesus by night, being one of them, doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee, search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went into his own house. The rulers really try intimidation here. They sent officers to arrest Jesus. And when the officers have heard Jesus speak, they come back and and and they said, Nevery man spake like this man.

But now you see the reaction of the of the rulers, rather than saying, Oh, really? And what did he say? Or let’s test, let’s examine, let’s judge righteous judgment. Instead, they just reacted, Well, are you also deceived? Prejudice is a thief. And these religious leaders, these rulers were so prejudiced, they had made their minds up. And it mattered not what Jesus did, it mattered not what he said. They were not going to accept him. And so to the officers, have you also been deceived? And then even Nicodemus. Now, this is the same Nicodemus that we studied back in John the third chapter, who came to Jesus by night and to whom Jesus spake concerning the new birth. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

And now, as a ruler of the Sanhedrin, as a as one of the rulers himself, he seems to want to stand up for Christ. In fact, he just simply says, Well, well, doth our law judge anyone before it hears him? At least we ought to give him a fair trial. But what’s their reaction? Again, they intimidate. Why? Are you from Galilee? Why would you just stand up and defend him? Is really their reaction. It’s not a matter of doing what is just and judging righteous judgment. They have closed their minds. Their attitudes are such they have made their minds up. And there are people that way, who know what they want to believe, and either they will pat themselves on the chest, or they will just say, My parents believe this, or my church has practiced this, and they close their Bibles, and they close their minds to anything different.

In Matthew chapter 13, verses 13 through 15, Jesus spoke about some who hearing would not understand. Who seeing would not perceive. And he said the reason is because they’ve closed their eyes, they’ve stopped their ears, their hearts are dull of hearing. Our hearts are waxed cross, and their ears are dull of hearing. They don’t want the truth, and they cannot have the truth because of their attitude toward it. Let us be careful that we not be that way. Would you have believed in the Christ? Why would you believe Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God? There is so much evidence that he is the Christ. But in our world today, there are still unbelievers. There are atheists, they’re infidels. There are those who, even in the name of religion, reject him.

6. Three Great Proofs He Is the Christ

The Jews today, who still say they believe in the God of heaven, reject Jesus as the Christ. The Muslims today, and a growing religious body in our world, yet they reject Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God divine. They simply say he’s a prophet. But Jesus is that prophet, like Moses. He is the Christ. He is the anointed one of whom the prophet spake, born in Bethlehem of the seed of David. How would you prove it? You study Acts chapter 2, and there’s a grand sermon the apostle Peter preached along with the other apostles on the day of Pentecost. And there are three great proofs that he gave. There’s the proof of the signs, the miracles, the wonders, and the signs which God did by Christ.

Acts 2 and verse 22. These are proof that he is the Son of God. But not only that, he fulfilled prophecy. Many times through the gospel of Matthew, as it is written in the scriptures, over and over and over again. The fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem is astounding. How could it be?

Conclusion

No man could have guessed it. God confirmed it. He promised it and it happened. And then these witnesses. Acts 2 32, those apostles who saw it, testified, were willing to die. There’s evidence he is the Christ. What do you believe about him? I hope you accept him as the Son of God and will obey you. Until our next study, we bid the grace and peace of our Lord be with you.